Category: Taiwan Roundtables

The landmark Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) was signed into law by the United States Congress and serves as a foundation for US-Taiwan relations, and guides bilateral and broader policymaking toward the region. As the TRA celebrates 45 years, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies is holding a Roundtable to take stock. How has the TRA’s meaning and interpretation changed over time? What do the US executive and congressional positions on the Act look like?  To what extent does the TRA come into play in cross strait relations?

*Guests are highly encouraged to tour the photography collection at the second-floor atrium of the Elliott School

“Interpreting the Taiwan Relations Act Over Time”, Vincent Wang

“US Congressional and Presidential Views on TRA@45”, Ryan Hass

“The TRA and its Role in Cross Strait Relations, Raymond Kuo

Opening Remarks

Alexander Yui has been the Representative for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States since December of 2023. He has previously served as the Representative to the European Union, the Vice minister of Foreign Affairs, the Director-General of the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs, as well as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Paraguay. He has a BA in Political Science and Modern Languages as well as an MA in Spanish Literature from Texas A&M University. He also attended Executive programs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2002 as well as The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the London School of Economics in 2010.

Speakers

Vincent Wei-Cheng Wang is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Adelphi University. Wang formerly served as Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College. He was formerly a Professor of Political Science and Chairman of the Department at the University of Richmond, specializing in international political economy and Asian studies. He has been a Visiting Professor or Fellow at National Chengchi University (Taipei), National Sun-Yat-sen University (Kaohsiung, Taiwan), El Colegio de Mexico, and Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Kyungnam University (Seoul, South Korea). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is a first-generation college student and received his BA from National Taiwan University and MA from Johns Hopkins University.

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 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.

Prior to joining NSC, Hass served as a Foreign Service Officer in U.S. Embassy Beijing, where he earned the State Department Director General’s award for impact and originality in reporting, an award given annually to the officer whose reporting had the greatest impact on the formulation of U.S. foreign policy. Hass also served in Embassy Seoul and Embassy Ulaanbaatar, and domestically in the State Department Offices of Taiwan Coordination and Korean Affairs. Hass received multiple Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor commendations during his 15-year tenure in the Foreign Service.

Hass is the author of “Stronger: Adapting America’s China Strategy in an Age of Competitive Interdependence” (Yale University Press, 2021), a co-editor of “Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World” (Brookings Press, 2021), of the monograph, “The future of US policy toward China: Recommendations for the Biden administration” (Brookings, 2020), and a co-author of “U.S.-Taiwan Relations: Will China’s Challenge Lead to a Crisis?” (Brookings Press, 2023). He also leads the Democracy in Asia project at the Brookings Institution and is co-chair of the international task force on Taiwan convened by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Hass was born and raised in Washington state. He graduated from the University of Washington and attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies prior to joining the State Department.

Moderator

Deepa M. 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. Dr. Ollapally also held senior positions in the policy world including the US Institute of Peace, Washington DC and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. She is a frequent commentator in the media, including appearances on CNN, BBC, CBS, Diane Rehm Show, and Reuters TV. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

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.

How is the intensification of Chinese pressure in the Taiwan Strait affecting cross strait politics and  U.S. strategy? What options are open to the U.S. and Taiwan to safeguard their interests and what are the implications? 

Join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies for a luncheon discussion with top political and strategic experts.

Topics

Military Scenarios in the Taiwan Strait and U.S. Deterrence Strategy, Joel Wuthnow, Senior Research Fellow, National Defense University

How are Identity and Ideology in Taiwan Shaping Cross-Strait Perceptions?, Rosalie Chen, Assistant Professor of Psychology, The Dominican University of California

Cross-Strait Politics and Evolving U.S.-Taiwan Relations, John Dotson, Deputy Director, The Global Taiwan Institute

Speakers

Dr. Joel Wuthnow is a senior research fellow in the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs within the Institute for National Strategic Studies at NDU. His research areas include Chinese foreign and security policy, Chinese military affairs, U.S.-China relations, and strategic developments in East Asia. In addition to his duties in INSS, he also serves as an adjunct professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. 

His recent books and monographs, all from NDU Press, include Gray Dragons: Assessing China’s Senior Military Leadership (2022), Crossing the Strait: China’s Military Prepares for War with Taiwan (2022, lead editor), The PLA Beyond Borders: Chinese Military Operations in Regional and Global Context (2021, lead editor), System Overload: Can China’s Military Be Distracted in a War over Taiwan? (2020), and Chairman Xi Remakes the PLA: Assessing Chinese Military Reforms (2019, co-editor). His research and commentary has also appeared in outlets such as Asia Policy, Asian Security, China Leadership Monitor, The China Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Joint Force Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Strategic Studies, Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Naval War College Review, and in edited volumes. 

Prior to joining NDU, Dr. Wuthnow was a China analyst at CNA, a postdoctoral fellow in the China and the World Program at Princeton University, and a pre-doctoral fellow at The Brookings Institution. His degrees are from Princeton University (A.B., summa cum laude, in Public and International Affairs), Oxford University (M.Phil. in Modern Chinese Studies), and Columbia University (Ph.D. in Political Science). He is proficient in Mandarin.

Rosalie Chen is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Dominican University of California. Her research interests are interdisciplinary in nature and lie at the intersection of social psychology, political science, and culture. Rosalie studies ideology in the East Asian cultural context, the national identity issue in cross-strait relations, and the role of culture-specific emotions at the group level in motivating international conflict. She is particularly interested in exploring international relations from the angles of political psychology and culture. Previously, she taught at Colgate University before joining DUC. Rosalie received her B.S. from Truman State University, M.A. from George Washington University, and Ph.D. from National Taiwan University.

John Dotson is the deputy director at the Global Taiwan Institute. John has performed extensive writing and research on a range of political and national security issues related to U.S. policy in East Asia, to include Chinese propaganda and influence efforts, military-civil fusion efforts within the People’s Liberation Army, and patterns in military coercion efforts directed against Taiwan. He is a proficient Mandarin linguist, who has performed extensive original research in indigenous Chinese language sources.

John holds an M.A. in National Security Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, and a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins-SAIS.

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.

The resiliency of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific now poses a central challenge for the U.S. and its partners in the Indo-Pacific. Taiwan’s unparalleled dominance in the global semiconductor industry places it at the forefront of any strategy on semiconductor supply chains. Taiwan, together with South Korea and Japan account for over 90 percent of the world’s semiconductor production.

How well are Taiwan, South Korea and Japan positioned to deal with the ongoing supply chain stresses and what are the economic and security implications to watch for? Join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies for a discussion bringing together perspectives on these three key players.

Taiwan: Navigating Its Central Role and the Spinoffs

South Korea: Rising Role and Choices

Japan: Japan’s Chip Challenge: Getting Back to the Future

Speakers

Lotta Danielsson is the Vice President of the US-Taiwan Business Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the trade and commercial relationship between the United States and Taiwan.

Ms. Danielsson is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Council. Her work includes membership retention and development, research on current Taiwan policy issues, and research to identify the needs of U.S. businesses in Taiwan. She oversees all member products and services, and manages the development of new value-added membership services. She also oversees all events and conferences, and she has planned the annual U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference – which serves as an important platform for bilateral dialogue on Taiwan’s national security and defense needs – since its inception in 2002. In addition, Ms. Danielsson supervises responses to member requests, prepares press releases, manages websites and social media, and acts as the Council editor. She has served as Vice President since 2003, when she was promoted from Director of Corporate Affairs, a position she had held since joining the Council in 2000.

As a student in the three-year International MBA program (Chinese Track) at the University of South Carolina, Ms. Danielsson spent 19 months studying Mandarin Chinese in Taipei, Taiwan and in Beijing, China. She was a consultant and marketer for the Beijing Sun-King Paper Company, where she worked with the management team to develop new marketing and administrative strategies and to launch a new paper brand into the Beijing market. Prior to entering the MBA program, she was Laboratory Director at New South Associates in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Ms. Danielsson also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Georgia State University. She has lived, studied, and worked in Asia, Europe, and North America, and is a native level speaker of Swedish and English.

Daniel Aum is an Associate at the Institute for Corean-American Studies and a former Harold W. Rosenthal Fellow both with the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation. He was the Senior Director for Public Affairs and Washington D.C. Director at the National Bureau of Asian Research. He served as a fellow with the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. He also worked on an international strategic litigation team at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.

Mr. Aum has published in political science journals, such as Defence and Peace Economics and North Korean Review, as well as in foreign policy outlets, including The National Interest, The Diplomat, East Asia Forum, South China Morning Post, The National Bureau of Asian Research, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Mr. Aum is currently a PhD candidate in international affairs, science, and technology at Georgia Tech. He received his JD from the George Washington University Law School, a Masters in Asian Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and a BA in philosophy from Baylor University.

Jeffrey D. Bean is Program Manager for Technology Policy and Editor at Observer Research Foundation America. He manages research on critical and emerging technologies, particularly semiconductors and 5G, and implements the activities of the Global Cyber Policy Dialogues. Concurrently, as editor, he reviews all research reports and papers ahead of publication for the organization.

Prior to joining ORF America, Mr. Bean was a Visiting Fellow at East-West Center and Tama University, where he conducted research on U.S.-Japan relations and emerging technology supply chain disruption with a focus on semiconductors.

Previously, Mr. Bean was editor of the Asia Policy Blog, CogitAsia, for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he oversaw publications and produced podcasts for the CSIS Asia Programs. In this role, Mr. Bean was responsible for tracking political, trade, technology, and security developments throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Bean worked as a research assistant with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS, where he managed projects that focused on Asian regional cooperation and U.S.-China relations. He is the author of over two dozen articles and reports as well as the producer of nearly one hundred CSIS podcasts on policy issues in Asia.

Mr. Bean holds an M.A. in security policy studies from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs where he was a highest honors fellow and a B.A. in international affairs and political science from James Madison University.

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. Dr. Ollapally also held senior positions in the policy world including the US Institute of Peace, Washington DC and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. She is a frequent commentator in the media, including appearances on CNN, BBC, CBS, Diane Rehm Show and Reuters TV. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” – Milan Kundera

Memory has always been an essential form of resistance against power and hegemony. Such was the case in Taiwan during its decades-spanning period of authoritarian rule. Since democratization in the 1990s, various social movements in Taiwanese society have made considerable efforts to tell the unspoken or erased stories forged under authoritarian rule as part of a larger unpacking of historical trauma and shaping of Taiwanese identity. On the other side of the Strait, political dissidents and ethnic minorities inside of the People’s Republic of China continue to struggle to protect and preserve their respective cultures, ways of living, and identities against the backdrop of the Chinese Communist Party’s conception of a unified “Chinese culture.” Specifically for Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Hong Kongers, those who are still in China are facing increased restrictions of political and cultural expression. Maintaining the social memories of their respective political identities, cultural practices, languages, and histories have thus become critically important to the work of diasporic communities.

The Sigur Center and the North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) are co-hosting a hybrid in-person and virtual Roundtable event to examine the different experiences among Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Uyghur, and Tibetan social movements and to foster dialogue between activists and scholars to explore ways of resisting authoritarian suppression through the power of social memories.

This Roundtable is free and open to the public and media. A recording of the Roundtable will be made publicly available in the days following the event. Additional support for this event is provided by GW East Asia National Resource Center and the Taiwan Education & Research Program.

Panelists

Anna Kwok, Strategy and Campaign Director, Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC)
Eric Schluessel, Assistant Professor of History and International Affairs, GW
Tsultrim Gyatso, Chinese Liaison Officer, Office of Tibet

Moderator

June Lin, Local Director of NATSA 2022 and Senior Program Officer for the Asia Program at Freedom House

Speakers

Anna Kwok is the Strategy and Campaign Director at Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), where she develops strategic frameworks and implementation plans for the organization’s key work streams.

During the 2019 movement, Anna has lead and organized several international media campaigns as an innovative force in the decentralized movement.

She received her B.S. of Media, Culture and Communication with a double major in Philosophy at the New York University, where she founded NYU Hong Kong Student Advocacy Group to organize advocacy events around New York City.

Eric Schluessel is a social historian of China and Central Asia, and his work focuses on Xinjiang (East Turkestan) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Land of Strangers, his first monograph, uses local archival and manuscript sources in Chinese and Chaghatay Turkic to explore the ramifications of a project undertaken in the last decades of the Qing empire to transform Xinjiang’s Turkic-speaking Muslims into Chinese-speaking Confucians.

Schluessel is currently pursuing two research projects: Saints and Sojourners explores the economic history of the Uyghur region from the 1750s through the 1950s as seen from below, through the records of merchants, farmers, and managers of pious endowments. It ties changes at the village level to shifts in the global economy in places as far away as Manchester and Tianjin. Exiled Gods delves into Han Chinese settler culture and religion to illuminate the history of a diasporic community of demobilized soldiers and their descendants that spanned the Qing empire.

Tsultrim Gyatso was born in Tibet and escaped to India when he was thirteen years old. He immigrated to United States later and received his education in New York City. Tsultrim has been active in promoting youth involvement in the Tibetan Movement and he started engaging in Sino-Tibet dialogue when he was in High School. He is currently working as the Chinese Liaison Officer at the Office of Tibet, DC.

Moderator

June Lin is the 2022 NATSA Local Director and Senior Program Officer at Freedom House for Asia programs. Before her career in D.C., June was a Sunflower Movement activist with professional experience in the non-profit, political and legislative sectors in Taiwan. In 2016, June moved to Washington, D.C., joining the Formosan Association for Public Affairs as a Policy Associate, where she convened Taiwanese Americans’ grassroots efforts in promoting U.S.-Taiwan relationships through congressional advocacy. In 2018, she started her career in the democracy, human rights, and governance sector at Freedom House, focusing on supporting the civil society actors in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as other diasporic communities subjected to human rights atrocities. In 2020, she joined the International Republican Institute as a North Asia Program Coordinator before returning to Freedom House in 2021.

As new cooperative measures take shape in the Indo-Pacific through minilateral and multilateral mechanisms led by the United States, what can Taiwan do to integrate further, together with partners or through its own efforts? What are the most pressing challenges in the region and how is Taiwan preparing to meet them? How do the U.S. and major European powers view Taiwan as a partner in their Indo-Pacific strategies?

The Sigur Center and the North American Taiwan Studies Association is co-hosting a hybrid in-person and virtual Roundtable event – with an in-person dinner reception at the Elliott School of International Affairs – to explore these questions with policy and expert views from Taiwan and the United States.

This Roundtable is free and open to the public and media. A recording of the Roundtable will be made publicly available in the days following the event. Additional support for this event is provided by GW East Asia National Resource Center and the Taiwan Education & Research Program.

Panelists

Liang-Yu Wang, Deputy Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S.

Bonnie S. Glaser, Director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States

Moderator

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

Speakers

Liang-Yu Wang (@TECRO_USA) is Deputy Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. (Since Jan. 2021). Wang has a wide range of high-level diplomatic experience across the globe. She was Director General, Bureau de Genève, Délégation Culturelle et Économique de Taipei (2018-Jan. 2021); Deputy Director General, Department of International Organizations, MOFA (2016-2018); Deputy Director, Political Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) (2014-2016). Wang has also held positions of First Secretary, Political Division, TECRO (2011-2014); Section Chief, APEC Task Force, Department of International Organizations, MOFA (2006-2009); Secretary, Political Division, TECRO (2000-2006); and Officer, Department of International Organizations, MOFA (1997-2000).

Bonnie S. Glaser (@BonnieGlaser) is director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She was previously senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Glaser is a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. Glaser has published widely in academic and policy journals, including the Washington Quarterly, China Quarterly, Asian Survey, International Security, as well as in newspapers such as the New York Times and International Herald Tribune. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Glaser received her M.A. with concentrations in international economics and Chinese studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

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.

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.