As the 75th World Health Assembly approaches, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies considers how the evolution of the pandemic and its newest phase impacts Taiwan’s diplomatic space. A virtual Roundtable of experts will examine the pathways that have been open to Taiwan over time to expand its global presence generally, and what lessons pandemic diplomacy holds moving forward. In these unprecedented times, how tenable is China’s continuing blocking of Taiwan’s greater participation in critical multilateral institutions?  

This event is free and open to the public.

Panelists

Jacques deLisle, Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; Director, Center for the Study of Contemporary China

James M. Lin, Assistant Professor, University of Washington

Moderator

Deepa M. Ollapally, Associate Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies

Speakers

Jacques deLisle‘s research and teaching focus on contemporary Chinese law and politics, including legal reform and its relationship to economic reform and political change in China, the international status of Taiwan and cross-Strait relations, China’s engagement with the international order, legal and political issues in Hong Kong under Chinese rule, and U.S.-China relations. His writings on these subjects appear in a variety of fora, including international relations journals, edited volumes of multidisciplinary scholarship, Asian studies journals, as well as law reviews. DeLisle is also the Director of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School. 

James M. Lin is a historian of Taiwan and its interactions with the world in the 20th century. His research examines international agrarian development, beginning with rural reform and agricultural science in China and Taiwan from the early 20th century through the postwar era, then its subsequent re-imagining during Taiwanese development missions to Africa, Asia, and Latin America from the 1950s onward. James Lin is the first faculty to be hired as part of the Jackson School’s new Taiwan Studies Program. He holds a Ph.D. in History from University of California at Berkeley. 

Moderator

Deepa M. Ollapally is a political scientist specializing in Indian foreign policy, South Asian security, India-China relations, and Indo-Pacific regional and maritime security. She also directs the Rising Powers Initiative, a major research program which tracks and analyzes foreign policy debates in aspiring powers of Asia and Eurasia.

She is the author of five books and is currently working on a manuscript titled Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indo-Pacific, which assesses the shifting patterns of geopolitical influence by major powers in the region since 2005 and the drivers of these changes. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.