About this Event
The 2026 U.S. midterm elections and Taiwan’s 2026 local elections unfold during landmark democratic anniversaries: the United States’ semiquincentennial and the 30th anniversary of Taiwan’s first direct presidential election. These parallel milestones provide a unique lens for examining how democratic identity, institutional resilience, and cross‑Strait geopolitics shape electoral behavior in both polities. In the United States, midterm dynamics reflect heightened economic anxieties, rising consumer prices, shifting partisan narratives, and growing voter concerns over affordability and foreign policy crises, including the conflict with Iran. Simultaneously, Taiwan’s local elections occur amid intensified political competition, partisan division, heightened public and legislative debate on issues such as defense spending, and renewed attention to democratic consolidation and public trust.
U.S.–Taiwan relations increasingly intersect with both electoral contexts. In Washington, bipartisan congressional resolutions reaffirm support for Taiwan’s democratic resilience and highlight growing concern over coercive pressure from the PRC. In Taiwan, cross‑Strait tensions, security and economic relations with the United States, and China’s influence operations—including AI‑driven disinformation—shape public discourse and electoral priorities. Together, these elections offer a comparative moment to assess how democratic anniversaries, geopolitical pressures, and domestic political realignments may recalibrate U.S.–Taiwan policy trajectories after 2026.
To unpack these dynamics, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies will convene a two‑panel conference bringing together leading scholars and experts to assess how these elections may recalibrate U.S.–Taiwan policy trajectories, democratic narratives, and strategic priorities in the post‑2026 geopolitical landscape.
Agenda:
Panel I: Unpacking the U.S. Midterms
W. Brent Christensen, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Herbert Chang, Assistant Professor of Quantitative Social Science, Dartmouth University
Shirley Kan, Independent Specialist in Indo-Pacific Security Affairs
Panel II: Situating Taiwan’s Local Elections
Shelley Rigger, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty | Brown Professor of Asian Politics, Davidson College
Kharis Templeman, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
Ping Li, Adjunct Lecturer & Research, University of Maryland; Research Director, FactLink
Doors will open no sooner than 15 minutes before the start time.
The Elliott School can coordinate with the university to reasonably accommodate most disabilities. If you need specific accommodations, please contact the Sigur Center at [email protected]. Requests should be made as soon as possible, but at least three days prior to the program to ensure accommodation.
About the Speakers:
W. Brent Christensen became an adjunct professor in Brigham Young University’s Political Science Department in January 2024 after 35 years in the US Foreign Service. In his last assignment in the Foreign Service, he served as the US representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, Canada. Previously, he was director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) from 2018 to 2021. He also served as deputy director of AIT and as director of the State Department’s Office of Taiwan Coordination. He has served three assignments at the US Embassy in Beijing, as well as assignments at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, and in the US missions in Hong Kong and South Africa. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he was a captain in the US Air Force.
He earned an MA in East Asian studies from the George Washington University, a BA in Chinese language and literature from Brigham Young University, and a DMD degree from the Oregon Health and Science University. He has received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award, the State Department’s Charles E. Cobb Jr. Award, and honorary doctorates from the Sun Yat-sen University and Kaohsiung Medical University.
Herbert Chang is an Assistant Professor of Quantitative Social Science at Dartmouth College, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Science. His research examines how emerging technologies reshape democratic behavior, including recent work on AI and misinformation in the 2024 Taiwan and U.S. presidential elections. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Scientific American.
Shirley Kan is an independent specialist in Asian security affairs whose service for the US Government has included working for Congress at the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) from 1990 to 2015. She is a founding member of Global Taiwan Institute’s Advisory Board. She writes analyses and participates in conferences. Ms. Kan participated in the Commandant’s National Security Program at the Army War College in 2012. During the Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1995-1996, she supported the Defense Attaché at the Embassy in Beijing. In China in 1989, she observed the pro-democracy movement and political-military crisis while serving as the Political Intern at the Consulate-General in Shenyang. Ms. Kan graduated cum laude from Georgetown University and from the University of Michigan’s graduate school.
Shelly Rigger is the Brown Professor of Asian Studies at Davidson College. She teaches courses on East Asian Politics, including domestic politics of East Asian countries and the international relations of the region. Her research and writing focus on Taiwanese politics and on the relationships among the United States, the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan.
In 2019-2020, she was a Fulbright scholar at National Taiwan University in Taipei, studying the political and social views of Taiwanese youth. She's been a visiting professor at two universities in the People’s Republic of China: Fudan University (2006) and Shanghai Jiaotong University (2013 & 2015), and was a visiting researcher at National Chengchi University in Taiwan in 2005. She is also a non-resident fellow of the China Policy Institute at Nottingham University and a senior fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). She also interacts frequently with US government officials, especially in the Taiwan policy field.
She has held a number of administrative posts at Davidson College; She currently serves as the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty. She is also a director of The Taiwan Fund, a closed-end investment fund specializing in Taiwan-listed companies.
She has written two academic books on Taiwan’s domestic politics -- Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy (Routledge 1999) and From Opposition to Power: Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (Lynne Rienner Publishers 2001) – as well as two books for general readers – Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse (2011) and The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China’s Economic Rise (2021). She has published articles on Taiwan’s domestic politics, the national identity issue in Taiwan-China relations, generational politics in Taiwan, and related topics. She has also published items in the Washington Post Monkey Cage blog.
Kharis Templeman is a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and program manager of the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region, as well as a lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies at Stanford University. A political scientist by training, he writes and speaks frequently about cross-Strait relations and Taiwan politics and policy issues.
Dr. Templeman has edited three book volumes: Taiwan’s Democracy Challenged: The Chen Shui-bian Years and Dynamics of Democracy in Taiwan: The Ma Ying-jeou Years (both with Larry Diamond and Yun-han Chu), and Electoral Malpractice in Asia: Bending the Rules (with Netina Tan). His other research has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Electoral Studies, Ethnopolitics, Journal of Democracy, International Journal of Taiwan Studies, and Taiwan Journal of Democracy, along with several book chapters. He has also written on Taiwan policy issues for the Brookings Institution, Atlantic Council, Foreign Affairs, Taiwan Insight, War on the Rocks, and The Diplomat. His current research agenda includes work on China’s Taiwan policy, the drivers of defense spending in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s party system evolution after the transition to democracy.
Dr. Templeman holds a B.A. from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Wei-Ping Li is the research director at FactLink, a Taiwanese organization dedicated to investigation and research on information manipulation and AI literacy. She is also an adjunct lecturer at the University of Maryland. She received her Ph.D. degree from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. Her research interests include information integrity, social media content moderation, and privacy issues in the digital era. Before pursuing an academic career, she offered consulting services for clients based in Asia. She also worked as a journalist for media outlets in Taiwan. Dr. Li earned her LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has been admitted to the practice of law in New York State since 2009.
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Lindner Commons, 602, 1957 E Street NW, Washington, United States
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