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After one of the most dramatic presidential campaigns in Taiwan’s history, on January 13, 2024, the people of Taiwan elected William Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party as their next president. Stepping into this leadership position, Lai, who currently serves as vice president, will have to address a number of foreign policy challenges. They include: a deteriorating relationship with the People’s Republic of China; a United States interested in preventing a cross-Strait conflict; and countries around the globe seeking the expansion of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. For the next four years, Taipei will likely continue to maintain the status quo and policies of current President Tsai Ing-wen.

At home, Taiwan will also grapple with a number of urgent issues. Wages have stagnated, and youth unemployment has led to disillusionment. Other issues, such as economic diversification and the rising costs of living and housing, are areas that the new president will need to address. Energy insecurity further threatens the economy. Lai will also decide the future of the country’s nuclear power plants. How will the new president confront these concerns – domestically and abroad? Are there prospects for deeper cross-Strait cooperation between Taipei and Beijing? How might the election impact the Indo-Pacific region and beyond?

Join Perry World House in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Contemporary China for this crucial discussion on the future of Taiwan and its foreign relations in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.

Speakers

Jacques deLisle is the Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law & Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania. His 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.

Susan A. Thornton is a Senior Fellow at the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center. She is retired senior U.S. diplomat with almost three decades of experience with the U.S. State Department in Eurasia and East Asia. She is also the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Until July 2018, Thornton was Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State and led East Asia policymaking amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China, and a fast-changing international environment.

Vincent Wei-cheng Wang is Dean of College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Adelphi University in New York City. He is a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Asia Program. He is the author of over eighty scholarly articles and book chapters on Asian political economy, security, international relations, East Asian-Latin American comparative development, Taiwan’s foreign policy and domestic politics, cross-strait relations, Chinese politics and foreign policy, China-India relations, India-U.S. relations, and U.S. relations with Asia’s major powers. He was formerly Professor of Politics and Dean of School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College; Associate Dean, School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia, where he had also served as the chair of the Political Science Department and the coordinator of the International Studies Program.

Moderator

Thomas J. Shattuck is a Senior Program Manager at Perry World House. His research focuses on cross-Strait relations, Taiwanese and Chinese domestic and foreign affairs, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, and the US role in the Indo-Pacific. Shattuck is a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute, Non-Resident Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, member of Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen Foreign Policy Initiative, and the Pacific Forum’s Young Leaders Program, where he participated in the 2022 US-Philippines Next-Generation Leaders in Security Initiative.