Name: The Four Pillars of US-Taiwan Policy: Continuity or Change Ahead?
Start: 2025-01-30T12:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-01-30T13:30:00-05:00
Location: Global Taiwan Institute

GTI is please to invited you to a panel discussion "The Four Pillars of US-Taiwan Policy: Continuity or Change Ahead?"
About this Event

The Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) is pleased to invite you to a panel discussion titled “The Four Pillars of US-Taiwan Policy: Continuity or Change Ahead?”
Enacted in 1979, the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) has been the cornerstone of the US-Taiwan relationship, ensuring defense/security, economic, international space, and people-to-people ties. This remarkable legislation mandated special American obligations and commitments to Taiwan that have helped to preserve peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait for the past 45 years. It is also the only legal underpinning of US policy toward Taiwan. As strategic changes necessitated adjustments in US policy during the Cold War, ongoing fundamental changes in the geopolitical landscape has necessitated a “rethink” of the US approach to Taiwan policy and cross-Strait relations, which has led to incremental adjustments in approaches in both the Trump and Biden Administrations. Considering these incremental changes, what is the likely trajectory for US-Taiwan relations over the next four years under President Trump and what will become of these four pillars?

The event will be held at GTI’s office located at 1836 Jefferson Place NW in Washington DC (approximately one block from the Dupont Circle Metro). Doors will open at 11:30 AM, and the event will begin at 12:00 PM. Please direct questions or concerns to Program Manager Adrienne Wu at [email protected].
**Media: Please contact Adrienne Wu at [email protected] if you would like to bring additional crew members or equipment, so that we can be sure to accommodate you.

The Panelists:

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.

Derek J. Mitchell is a non-resident senior adviser to the Office of the President and the Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). From 2001 to 2009, Ambassador Mitchell served as senior fellow with the International Security Program and director for Asia projects and founded CSIS’s renowned Southeast Asia Program. One of the nation’s foremost experts on global democracy and Asian and Pacific political and security affairs, Ambassador Mitchell boasts a more than three-decade career in the US government and the private and nonprofit sectors. He most recently served as president of the National Democratic Institute, overseeing programs to support democratic development worldwide. From 2012 to 2016, Ambassador Mitchell was the first US ambassador to Burma (Myanmar) in 22 years during a historic period in the country’s nascent democratic transition. During the previous year, he served as special representative and policy coordinator for Burma, with the rank of ambassador. From 2009 to 2011, Ambassador Mitchell oversaw the US Defense Department’s Asia policy as the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs and as the acting assistant secretary, for which he was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Distinguished Public Service. He previously served as special assistant to the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs from 1997 to 2001.

Adrienne Chih-fang Wu is a program manager at the Global Taiwan Institute and the host and producer of Taiwan Salon, GTI’s cultural policy and soft power podcast. With an interest in exploring the intersection of culture and policy, her research focuses on how Taiwan can strengthen international connections through nation branding, cultural diplomacy and a strong civil society. She is a member of the UC Berkeley US-Taiwan Next Generation Working Group, where she is conducting a research project on the barriers to importing Taiwanese cultural products, and a member of the Foreign Policy for America’s Next Gen Initiative. Additionally, she was a 2024 Taiwan-US Policy Program Delegate and contributed to the German Marshall Fund’s compendium, New Generation Perspectives on Taiwan: Insights from the 2024 Taiwan-US Policy Program. Previously a Taiwan Delegate for Strait Talk 2023 at George Washington University, she is currently a Strait Talk facilitator-in-training. Before joining GTI, she graduated from Ritsumeikan University and Kyunghee University with a Dual Master’s Degree in International Relations. She spent seven years living in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan—including three years of teaching English in Japan and Taiwan and a year of study at Waseda University while pursuing her BA in Honors East Asian Studies from McGill University. She also worked at the Presidential Precinct to help facilitate the Mandela Washington Fellowship Program for young African leaders.

The Moderator:

Russell Hsiao is the executive director of GTI, senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, and adjunct fellow at Pacific Forum. He is a former Penn Kemble fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy and visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia. 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 US Trade Representative. Mr. Hsiao received his JD 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’s Journal of Law and Technology. He received a BA in international studies from the American University’s School of International Service and the University Honors Program.