7/18/23 | Taiwan Roundtable | Building Taiwan’s Soft Power: Media, Democracy, and Global Image

Taiwan’s soft power has served as a key diplomatic asset in the face of constrained international space. How is Taiwan’s soft power faring currently in the context of increased Chinese pressure, the war in Ukraine, geopolitical challenges in the Indo-Pacific and new global economic shifts? The Sigur Center for Asian Studies invites you to a Roundtable with experts who will analyze the role of the media, democratic governance, and business climate in contributing to Taiwan’s soft power capabilities and its diplomatic image abroad.

Topics

The Impact of Media in Taiwan on Images at Home and Abroad, Shu-ling Ko, Visting Fellow, The National Endowment for Democracy; Reporter, Kyodo News

U.S. Engagement with Taiwan’s Democracy and Implications, Ryan Hass, Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, The Michael H. Armacost Chair, Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, The Brookings Institution

How Does Governance and Business Climate Matter for Taiwan’s Global Image?, Tiffany Ma, Senior Director, BowerGroupAsia

Speakers

Ms. Shu-ling Ko is an English-language reporter from Taiwan who, in 2011, joined the Taipei office of Kyodo News, Japan’s oldest and largest news agency. In that capacity, she has written on various issues pertaining to Taiwanese politics and foreign affairs, including coverage of human rights abuses, elections, and cross-strait relations with the People’s Republic of China. Before joining Kyodo News, she worked as a beat reporter for the Taipei Times, the top English-language daily publication in Taiwan, where she managed overseas assignments in Latin America and the South Pacific. For her coverage of cross-strait relations and Pacific politics, Ms. Ko was awarded a Jefferson Fellowship at the East-West Center in 2015. She has also served on the executive committees of the Association of Taiwan Journalists, the East-West Center, and the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents Club.

Mr. Ryan Hass is director of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at Brookings. He is also a senior fellow in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. He was part of the inaugural class of David M. Rubenstein fellows at Brookings, and is a nonresident affiliated fellow in the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School. Hass focuses his research and analysis on enhancing policy development on the pressing political, economic, and security challenges facing the United States in East Asia.

From 2013 to 2017, Hass served as the director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the National Security Council (NSC) staff. In that role, he advised President Obama and senior White House officials on all aspects of U.S. policy toward China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, and coordinated the implementation of U.S. policy toward this region among U.S. government departments and agencies. He joined President Obama’s state visit delegations in Beijing and Washington respectively in 2014 and 2015, and the president’s delegation to Hangzhou, China, for the G-20 in 2016, and to Lima, Peru, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meetings in 2016.

Ms. Tiffany Ma manages BowerGroupAsia (BGA)’s client relationships and engagements. She directs analysis and activities designed to advise Fortune 500 companies on public policy issues, regional geopolitics, and stakeholder management. Ma is an expert on Asia-Pacific security issues. She regularly writes and speaks on China-Taiwan relations, U.S.-China relations, and Asia-Pacific maritime security. Her research and analysis has been incorporated into regular briefings with decision-makers, including at the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of State, and with staff and members of Congress. She has been featured in both U.S. and international media outlets, including Agence France-Presse, Voice of America, Christian Science Monitor, and Liberty Times.

Prior to joining BGA, Ma was the senior director for political and security affairs at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Washington, D.C., where she led major initiatives on geopolitical and international security affairs in the Asia-Pacific that regularly convened senior government officials and specialists from across the region. She began her career as a research associate at the Project 2049 Institute, an Asia security think tank based in Arlington, Virginia, and has also worked at the International Crisis Group in Beijing, the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

Moderator

Deepa Ollapally is a political scientist specializing in Indian foreign policy, India-China relations, and Asian regional and maritime security. She is Research Professor of International Affairs and the Associate Director of the Sigur Center. She also directs the Rising Powers Initiative, a major research program that tracks and analyzes foreign policy debates in aspiring powers of Asia and Eurasia.

Dr. Ollapally is currently working on a funded book, Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indian Ocean Region, which assesses the shifting patterns of geopolitical influence by major powers in the region since 2005 and the drivers of these changes. She is the author of five books including Worldviews of Aspiring Powers (Oxford, 2012) and The Politics of Extremism in South Asia (Cambridge, 2008). Her most recent books are two edited volumes, Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia (Routledge, 2017), and Nuclear Debates in Asia: The Role of Geopolitics and Domestic Processes (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).

Dr. Ollapally has received grants from the Carnegie Corporation, MacArthur Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Asia Foundation for projects related to India and Asia. Previously, she was Associate Professor at Swarthmore College and has been a Visiting Professor at Kings College, London and at Columbia University.