Yan Anlin on the Drawbacks of a Timetable for Taiwan

"It is likely to take another 5 to 10 years to achieve full reunification, as we are still in a phase of quantitative change, rather than having reached a qualitative shift."

Yan Anlin (严安林) ranks among China’s foremost Taiwan experts. As he likes to note himself, he was the first person in mainland China to earn a Ph.D. in Taiwan studies, has been regularly consulted by Beijing for policy advice and served as a close aide to Wang Daohan (汪道涵)—Beijing’s representative during the landmark 1993 cross-Strait talks.

Yan is also highly adept at addressing both domestic and international audiences. Given his background and connections, it is hard to imagine his granting any “tell-all” interview on Taiwan that would stray from messaging closely aligned with the PRC’s interests. His latest paper—Research on Discourse Construction and Practical Strategies for International Communication Concerning Taiwan-related Issues, published last December—demonstrates as much.

Far from making Yan’s insights worthless, this is simply a reminder that much—though by no means all—of what he says in public is probably subject to careful calibration. One could argue the same of most…