Assessing the Results of Taiwan’s Election

Please join The Heritage Foundation and Global Taiwan Institute on the Monday after the Taiwan election to assess the results.

On January 11, Taiwan will hold its seventh consecutive election for President and ninth national election for its Legislative Yuan. It is an event certain to have an impact on its security and prosperity, its role in the world, on US-Taiwan relations, and cross-straits relations. Please join The Heritage Foundation and Global Taiwan Institute on the Monday after the election to assess the results.

There will be two keynote remarks by Congressman Ted Yoho (FL-R), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific and Ambassador Stanley Kao, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S.

Panelists include: Bonnies Glaser, Senior Adviser for Asia and Director of China Power Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mark Strokes, Executive Director, Project 2049 Institute and Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, George Washington University. The panel will be moderated by Executive Director Russell Hsiao of the Global Taiwan Institute. The panel discussion is co-hosted by the Heritage Foundation. 

Doors will open at 10:00 am. The event will begin at 10:30 pm. Kindly RSVP by January 10. Please, direct your questions or concerns to rsvp@globaltaiwan.org.

** Media: Please contact rsvp@globaltaiwan.org if you would like to bring additional crew members or equipment so that we can be sure to accommodate you.

Keynote remarks by:

Congressman Ted Yoho (FL-R) represents North Central Florida’s 3rd Congressional District. He was elected to the 113th Congress in November 2012, and won re-election for his fourth term in the 116th Congress.

His approach to government is guided by constitutional principles, limited government, fiscal conservatism, Personal Responsibility, and free enterprise. These principles keep Congressman Yoho focused on supporting bills that help make American strong.  Ted has been known to stand up and challenge the status quo for the better.Prior to serving in Congress, he was a small business owner who operated several large animal veterinary practices for 30 years. During his successful career, he established a reputation of accountability and service.

Ambassador Stanley Kao assumed his current position as TECRO Representative in June 2016.  Prior to that, he served as Taiwan’s Representative to Rome, Italy from 2013 to 2016.  In his 40-year foreign service career, he has served as Director General of the Department of North American Affairs (2001-02) and of International Cooperation and of Economic Affairs (2010-13) at the Foreign Ministry in Taipei; Head of Taiwan’s Mission to Budapest, Hungary (2008-10); Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington, DC (2004-07); and Deputy Permanent Representative of Taiwan’s delegation to the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland (2002-04).  He was the English interpreter for Presidents Chen Shui-bian and Lee Teng-hui. He was also posted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1996-98) and in Atlanta, Georgia (1993-96).

Amb. Kao holds a B.A. in Political Science from National Taiwan University, and an M.A. in International Law and Diplomacy from National Chengchi University in Taipei. He was also a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) in 1996-97.

Panelists:

Bonnie Glaser is a senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at CSIS, where she works on issues related to Asia-Pacific security with a focus on Chinese foreign and security policy. She is concomitantly a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. Ms. Glaser has worked for more than three decades at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and U.S. policy.

From 2008 to mid-2015, she was a senior adviser with the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies, and from 2003 to 2008, she was a senior associate in the CSIS International Security Program. Prior to joining CSIS, she served as a consultant for various U.S. government offices, including the Departments of Defense and State. Ms. Glaser has published widely in academic and policy journals, including the Washington Quarterly, China Quarterly, Asian Survey, International Security, Contemporary Southeast Asia, American Foreign Policy Interests, Far Eastern Economic Review, and Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, as well as in leading newspapers such as the New York Times and International Herald Tribune and in various edited volumes on Asian security. She is also a regular contributor to the Pacific Forum web journal Comparative Connections. She is currently a board member of the U.S. Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific and a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She served as a member of the Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board China Panel in 1997.

Ms. Glaser received her B.A. in political science from Boston University and her M.A. with concentrations in international economics and Chinese studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Mark Stokes is Executive Director of the Project 2049 Institute. In addition to Taiwan issues, Mark’s research focus includes Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force and Strategic Support Force, defense industry, military and political leadership, and cross-Strait relations. Mark has served in a variety of military and private sector positions.

A 20 year U.S. Air Force veteran, he served in intelligence, planning, and policy positions. From 1984-1989, he was assigned to the Philippines and West Berlin. After graduate school and Chinese language training, Mark served as assistant air attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 1992 to 1995. From 1995 to May 1997, he was assigned as a strategic planner within the U.S. Air Force Plans and Operations Directorate. Between 1997 and 2004, he served as senior country director for China and Taiwan in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. After retiring from military service, he worked in the private sector on Taiwan for more than three years. Mark joined Project 2049 in 2008.

He holds a BA from Texas A&M University and graduate degrees in international relations and Asian studies from Boston University and the Naval Postgraduate School. He has working proficiency in Mandarin Chinese.

Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University since 2011. He also served as Director of the School’s main undergraduate program involving over 2,000 students from 2013-2019. His earlier full-time position was Visiting Professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University (2001-2011). A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, Sutter has published 22 books (four with multiple editions), over 300 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His most recent book is The United States and Asia: Regional Dynamics and Twenty-first Century Relations Second Edition (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).

Sutter’s government career (1968-2001) saw service as senior specialist and Director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the U.S. Government’s National Intelligence Council, the China division Director at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Moderator:

Russell Hsiao is the executive director of GTI, current Penn Kemble fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, and adjunct fellow at the Pacific Forum. He previously served as a senior research fellow at the Project 2049 Institute and National Security fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Prior to those positions he was the editor of China Brief at The Jamestown Foundation from October 2007­ to July 2011 and a special associate in the International Cooperation Department at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. While in law school, he clerked within the Office of the Chairman at the Federal Communications Commission and the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Mr. Hsiao received his J.D. and certificate from the Law and Technology Institute at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology. He received a B.A. in International Studies from the American University’s School of International Service and the University Honors Program. Mr. Hsiao is proficient in Mandarin Chinese.

Hosted by:

Walter Lohman is the director of The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, Walter Lohman leads the think tank’s oldest research center. Established in 1983, The Asian Studies Center is home to research fellows and scholars who develop recommendations to further American interests in freedom and security in the Indo-Pacific region.

In addition to his management responsibilities, Lohman is a policy analyst focused on U.S. relations with its treaty allies in Japan, South Korea and Australia, as well as with India and countries of Southeast Asia. He is also the leading voice at Heritage on the U.S.-Taiwan relationship, and is a close observer of China policy. Recognizing the strength of America’s historical and cultural ties to Europe, in recent years, Lohman has spearheaded a Heritage effort to encourage better coordination in all these areas with transatlantic allies and partners. Lohman joined Heritage in 2006 as senior research fellow for Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and was promoted to director the following spring. Since 2013, he has also served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, where he has led graduate seminars on American foreign policy interests in Southeast Asia and the role of Congress in Asia policy.    

Lohman holds a bachelor’s degree in humanities from Virginia Wesleyan College and a master’s degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.  Originally from Norfolk, he now resides in Falls Church, Va., with his wife and three sons.