儘管兩岸關係是國際事務抑或是國內事務目前在學術界有不同的認知與主張,但兩岸關係同時受國際因素與國內因素的影響卻是不爭的事實。議題聯結理論將兩岸關係置於開放系統中研究,強調兩岸關係與我國的大陸政策如何受國際與國內因素互動之多重因素考量,它皮吾人能對兩岸關係持更寬廣的視野與更深入的分析。對執政黨來說,議題聯結理論能對政府之施政提供理論依據與政策辯護;另一方面,對在野黨而言,也可以藉議題聯結理論對政府政策缺失或遺漏提出批評或監督,因此議題聯結具有「一刀兩刃」之功能。但議題聯結理論亦有其不夠「節約」(parsimony)之遺憾,此遺憾有賴於建立議題間優先順序模型,從而提出具體可行之政策。
We have long known that domestic politics and international relations are often entangled; while both the Taiwan government and academia in Taiwan have called for attention to the linkages between politics and economy across the Taiwan Strait, few have explored linkage politics, or vice versa. Realizing the effect the closer economic ties between Taiwan and the mainland, decisionmakers in Taiwan have been cautious on the issues of Taiwan's investment in the mainland. Taipei's concerns about becoming an “economic hostage to serve China's political bargaining”is understandable. However, this concern is only one facet of linkage politics. The other facet includes interactions between foreign policy and domestic politics—or so called two-level games, which deserve no less attention. Furthermore, by setting priorities among the issues, we can untie linkages among the issues, and make policy suggestions available. In this paper, I have tried to broaden the scope and deepen the depth of linkage politics. By exploring two sets of spillover effectsp—economy/politics and foreign/domestic – I have elaborated on the integration of theory and practice. Moreover, Taiwan's China policymaking process will be analyzed, and policy recommendations proposed.