About this Event
About the Talk
Scholarly and policy debates surrounding cross-Strait relations have increasingly expanded to examine the broader range of political, legal, informational, and social instruments employed by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to shape Taiwan's sociopolitical environment and foreign relations. This panel explores how Beijing's contemporary approach toward Taiwan combines international and subnational diplomatic engagement, legal measures often described as lawfare, and information and influence operations to shape political behavior while remaining below the threshold of conventional military escalation. Recent developments, including the high-profile meeting between PRC President Xi Jinping and Kuomintang Chairperson Cheng Li-wun, exchanges with Taiwanese local governments and municipal leaders, sustained campaigns of online disinformation and cognitive influence, expanded legal measures targeting perceived supporters of Taiwanese sovereignty, and the implementation of China's new Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, have renewed debate over the evolving boundaries between engagement, persuasion, deterrence, and coercion.
The Sigur Center for Asian Studies is convening a panel of scholars to examine these developments from interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives. Drawing on their areas of expertise, the panelists will explore varied interpretations of Beijing's evolving strategy, assess Taiwan's responses, and consider the broader implications for democratic resilience, regional stability, and the future of cross-Strait relations.
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
Margaret (Maggie) Lewis is a professor at Seton Hall Law School whose work examines legal dynamics in the U.S.–Asia relationship, with a focus on China and Taiwan and an emphasis on criminal justice and human rights. She previously served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Institutional Operations.
She has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at National Taiwan University, a visiting researcher at Melbourne Law School’s Asian Law Centre, and a visiting professor at Academia Sinica. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, as well as on the advisory board of the National Science Foundation’s SECURE Center. She is also a nonresident affiliated scholar of New York University School of Law’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute.
In addition to her publications in academic legal journals, Lewis co-authored the book Challenge to China: How Taiwan Abolished its Version of Re-Education Through Labor with Jerome A. Cohen. She received her J.D., magna cum laude, from NYU and her B.A., summa cum laude, from Columbia University. She also studied at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies.
Dr. Sara Newland is an associate professor of government at Smith College. She is an expert on local politics in China and Taiwan, and on subnational US-China-Taiwan relations. With Dr. Kyle Jaros, she is writing a book on US city- and state-level engagement with China in the context of rising tensions between the two countries. Her work has been published in major journals in political science and Asian studies, including Governance, Publius, China Quarterly, PS, and Pacific Review. Newland is a fellow in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on US-China Relations and a member of the US-Taiwan Next Generation Working Group. In 2024, she served as Visiting Senior Fellow for US-China Subnational Relations at the Truman Center for National Policy. She regularly speaks to media, public audiences, and elected officials about the domestic politics of China and Taiwan, and about US-China-Taiwan relations.
Ben Sando is a research fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute, where he investigates PRC united front influence operations and hosts the Global Taiwan Insights podcast. He previously worked at the Doublethink Lab NGO in Taipei, Taiwan, studying PRC united front strategy for the China Index project.
Sando holds an M.A. in Asian Studies from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He completed his B.A. at Stanford University, where he majored in International Relations and minored in Mechanical Engineering.
Sando has lived in Seoul, South Korea, as a researcher at the ROK National Assembly Research Service and the Yonsei University Institute for Sinology. Fluent in Mandarin and Korean, his writing has been published by the Global Taiwan Brief, Council on Foreign Relations, East Asia Forum, The Diplomat, NK News, and others.
Event venue & nearby stays
Lindner Commons, 602, 1957 E Street NW, Washington, United States
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