The past several years have been a tumultuous period in cross-strait relations. The DPP victory in the January 2024 Taiwan presidential election has further raised uncertainty over U.S.-PRC-Taiwan relations. Growing geopolitical tensions are balanced against the large and critical role of Taiwan in the global economy, including semiconductors and supply chains. 

Join us on Friday, March 15, for a breakfast briefing with Taiwan experts based in the U.S. and Taiwan to discuss cross-strait relations from the perspectives of domestic and international politics and economics. We will explore key questions such as the impacts of Taiwan's 2024 election, the role of Taiwan in global economy and supply chains, and the strategic importance of Taiwan to the U.S. and its allies. Our speakers include Margaret Lewis, Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Institutional Operations and Professor of Law at Seton Hall University; Emma Chanlett-Avery, Deputy Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute's Washington, DC office and the Director for Political-Security Affairs; Michelle Hsieh, Associate Research Fellow in the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, in Taipei; and Nelson Dong, Of Counsel in the Seattle office of the Dorsey & Whitney law firm and co-heads its National Security Law Group. 

This is a private, off-the-record event, and is free for Asia Society Seattle members. Light breakfast will be served. Virtual access is available for Asia Society Northern California. Members, please email [email protected] if you have trouble registering. Non-members should email [email protected] for registration inquires. Registration and confirmation of registration is required. Zoom link for virtual access will be provided 24 hours before the event.

AGENDA

8:00 AM – Registration and Networking in Seattle 

8:30 AM – Program Begins (ASNC Zoom Livestream Starts)

9:30 AM – Program Ends (ASNC Zoom Livestream ends)

Registration and confirmation are required at least 24 hours before the event. Zoom link for virtual access will be provided 24 hours before the event.

SPEAKER

Emma Chanlett-Avery is Deputy Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute's Washington, DC office and the Director for Political-Security Affairs. Previous to this post, she served for 20 years as a Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, where she focused on U.S. relations with Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Thailand, and Singapore, with an emphasis on security issues and alliances. In 2023, she served as a Congressional Fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, assisting the Chairman with drafting Asia policy legislation and preparing for hearings. Ms. Chanlett-Avery was a Presidential Management Fellow, with rotations in the State Department on the Korea Desk and at the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group in Bangkok, Thailand. She also worked in the Office of Policy Planning as a Harold Rosenthal Fellow. She is a member of the Mansfield Foundation U.S. – Japan Network for the Future and a Mansfield-Luce Asia Network Scholar. In 2016, she received the Kato Prize, awarded by Washington think tanks for strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance. She serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Japan America Societies, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Japan America Society of Washington DC, and as a Trustee of International Student Conferences, Inc. Ms. Chanlett-Avery received an MA in international security policy from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and her BA in Russian studies from Amherst College.

Nelson Dong is an Of Counsel in the Seattle office of the Dorsey & Whitney law firm and co-heads its National Security Law Group. He advises companies, professional societies, universities and research organizations on export controls, economic sanctions, national security and international trade and investment matters. He is also an author and teacher on international technology law issues.

Nelson was a White House Fellow and U.S. Justice Department official in the Carter Administration responsible for international and national security matters and was a federal prosecutor in Boston. He has been an export control policy advisor to the U.S. Commerce Department and served over a decade as a director of the National Committee on US-China Relations in New York City. He is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, a director of the Washington State China Relations Council in Seattle, a member of the Advisory Board for Asia Society Seattle and an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Committee of 100. Nelson is a graduate of Stanford University and the Yale Law School and has served as a trustee of Stanford University.

Michelle F. Hsieh is an Associate Research Fellow in the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, in Taipei, Taiwan. Her research interests include economic sociology, sociology of development, comparative political economy, and East Asian societies. Her ongoing research explores the impacts and consequences of restructuring global supply chains and the factors that explain supply chains’ resilience, as well as competing models of East Asian development. She has done empirical analysis of the different configurations of the state-society linkages for innovation through comparative industry studies on Taiwan and South Korea. Her investigations focus on how technology learning and adaptation take place in a decentralized system of SME (small and medium enterprise) network production and the institutional arrangements that can facilitate or hinder coordination and collaboration. Other research interests include the origins of the East Asian developmental state and the connection between technological development and Cold War geopolitics in the latter half of the twentieth century. Dr. Hsieh received her PhD in Sociology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Margaret Lewis is the Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Institutional Operations and Professor of Law at Seton Hall University. Her research focuses on China and Taiwan with an emphasis on criminal justice and human rights as well as on legal issues in the US-China relationship. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at National Taiwan University, a visiting professor at Academic Sinica, a Public Intellectuals Program Fellow with the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and a delegate to the US-Japan Foundation’s US-Japan Leadership Program. Lewis is also a Non-Resident Affiliated Scholar of NYU School of Law’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute. Professor Lewis received her J.D., magna cum laude, from NYU School of Law, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif and was a member of Law Review. She received her B.A., summa cum laude, from Columbia University and also studied at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China.