California universities convene to discuss Taiwan’s international policies
By Eliza Blackorby
June 4, 2015 4:10 p.m.
UCLA, University of Southern California and UC Irvine scholars discussed Taiwan’s economic and political policies, with an emphasis on the country’s changing international presence since World War II.
The discussion followed a broadcast of a video conference between Stanford University professors and the president of the Republic of China, Ma Ying-jeou, at the Taiwan Academy in Westwood. The event in part commemorated the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.
About 50 attended the conference, which was co-sponsored by the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, the UCLA Asia Institute and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles.
Event organizers intended to create dialogue about political and economic policies between scholars and policy leaders regarding Taiwan’s diplomatic relations with the United States, China and Japan, said Angel Liu, director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office hoped the event would help promote Taiwan’s admission into the Trans-Pacific Partnership program, Liu added. President Obama’s administration instituted the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement of 2011 to increase U.S. trade with countries in the Asia Pacific region.
Some students in attendance expressed interest in learning more about the political and economic policy of Taiwan.
Zikai Li, a first-year mathematics student from mainland China, said he was interested in learning more about Ma’s description of relations between mainland China and Taiwan.
An ongoing issue for Taiwan is the way in which WWII is remembered in East Asia, said R. Bin Wong, director of the UCLA Asia Institute and history professor, who moderated the discussion.
In WWII, the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Communist Party of China became allies in opposition with Japan, but there was very little economic interaction or population flow between Taiwan and mainland China, said Jeffrey Wasserstrom, chancellor’s professor of history at UC Irvine.
He added he thinks this situation has become reversed today, with exchange of people, goods and connections between the mainland and Taiwan.
Taiwan is not an officially recognized independent country. All U.S. relations with Taiwan are maintained through the American Institute in Taiwan, a private nonprofit corporation that carries out similar functions as an official diplomatic post would.
“Taiwan is the most recognized unrecognized government by the United States,” said Ma, recalling the words of his doctorate thesis adviser.
In the discussion following the video broadcast, the professors addressed U.S. competition with China, largely in response to questions from audience members.
Wasserstrom, whose father taught at UCLA while he was growing up, compared the American view of China’s economy to his view of basketball as a fan.
He said since he rooted for the Bruins when John Wooden was coach, there was never a question that his team would win, only by how big a margin.
“A lot of Americans had a stretch where we viewed the world the way I viewed basketball,” Wasserstrom said. “We feel like we’re being trounced when China rises, when really, we’re just being competitive.”
