Penelitian ini mengkaji tentang respon yang diberikan oleh Taiwan pada masa pemerintahan Presiden Tsai Ing Wen, dalam menghadapi penguatan regional-power Tiongkok di Asia. Kajian tersebut berkaitan dengan konflik politik internasional Taiwan dengan Tiongkok dalan isu cross-strait relations. Penelitian ini pun melihat bahwa Taiwan pada masa pemerintahan Tsai Ing Wen mengalami tantangan politik domestik terkait isu cross-strait relations pada hubungannya dengan Tiongkok. Kemudian dengan menggunakan metode analisis process-tracing, pergantian pemerintahan ke Presiden Tsai Ing Wen dan Partai Democratic Progressive Party, serta perkembangan tuntutan ekonomi domestik masyarakat untuk melepas ketergantungan ekonomi dengan Tiongkok menjadi mekanisme kausal yang menunjukkan adanya hubungan sebab-akibat dari kebijakan Tsai Ing Wen dalam isu cross-strait relations. Hal itu dikaji melalui konsep perbedaan besaran power oleh Detlef Nolte, bahwa terdapat perbedaan besaran power antara Taiwan dan Tiongkok di tingkat regional. Taiwan merupakan minor-power dan Tiongkok merupakan regional-power. Teori yang digunakan adalah teori small-state oleh Tom Long untuk menganalisis kebijakan yang dilakukan Tsai Ing Wen di tengah penguatan minor-power Taiwan, sebagai bentuk respon terhadap penguatan regional-power Tiongkok. Penelitian ini pun menemukan bahwa Tsai merespon penguatan regional-power Tiongkok melalui kebijakan strategis yang termasuk dalam bentuk collective power, derivative power, dan particular-intrinsic power yang juga ditujukan untuk mengatasi isu ekonomi domestik.

Kata kunci: cross-strait relations, minor-power, regional-power, Tsai Ing Wen, small-state

The research examines the responses of Taiwan during President Tsai Ing Wen goverment towards China’s emerging regional-power in Asia, relating to the cross-strait relations conflict occured between Taiwan and China as a lasting international politics issue. This research then argues that Taiwan during the government of President Tsai Ing Wen has been facing several domestic challenges relating to the cross-strait relations at the cost of its international politics with China. Through the method of process-tracing method, the switch of Taiwan’s government to Presiden Tsai Ing Wen and the Democratic Progressive Party and the emerging domestic economic challenges to unfold dependency to China, have become the causal mechanisms to show a cause-and-outcome relations in Tsai’s policies towards the cross-strait relations. This research uses the theory of power by Detlef Nolte that both Taiwan and China have different power in regional level, positioning Taiwan as minor-power and China as regional-power. To analyze about the policies made by Tsai in those conditions, this research uses the theory of small-state by Tom Long to look for the policies towards cross-strait relations towards China’s emerging regional power. The finding from this research is that during her government, Tsai responds to China’s emerging regional power by implementing three major policies: collective-power, derivative-power, and particular intrinsic power in order to also satisfy the existing domestic politics in Taiwan.

Key words:

cross-strait relations, minor-power, regional-power, Tsai Ing Wen, small-state