 Welcome to Asian Review. I'm your host Bill Sharp coming to you from downtown Honolulu in the greatest state of Hawaii. It's a shame, but Taiwan is often overlooked in academia, media, research centers, etc. The new Washington DC-based Global Taiwan Institute is solely dedicated to researching Taiwan issues. As such, it should raise American and global interest in Taiwan. Joining us today via Skype from Washington DC is the Executive Director of the Global Taiwan Institute, Russell Xiao. Welcome to Asian Review. It's great to have you with us, Russell. Thank you, Bill. It's great to be here. That's great. Well, let's get right into it then. The Global Taiwan Institute. How did it get started? Who were the movers and shakers? In addition to you, of course. Yeah, well, you know, I mean, this is the origins of the Global Taiwan Institute really began over a year ago. And while the organization was only established in September of 2016, so we've only been in operations now for about a little over four months, the planning for it really began well over a year. It's really the brainchild of many Taiwanese Americans that really looking at how to really establish an institution in Washington DC to really help raise the visibility of Taiwan policy issues in DC. And so many motivated and passionate Taiwanese Americans as well as Taiwanese in Taiwan and people in Taiwan donated to establish this organization that has now been established. And so as the Executive Director, I run its major programs. We have a very active board to go back to your question. The Board of Directors actually includes... Well, let's go back a little bit here. And then we'll get to the Board of Directors. Okay, so basically the impetus for the Global Taiwan Institute to get a start of what came from Taiwanese Americans and some folks in Taiwan, right? Right. So any political parties? No, we're not affiliated with any single political party. And although people do tend to look at our people that have associated themselves with this institution as being more green-leaning, I always tell the people who are concerned by this or by sort of the perceived coloration of the organization that really the proof is in the work product that we are producing. And I think we can go at much length in terms of really about the products that we're producing and how that really is to reflect a more objective analysis about current developments related to Taiwan and why they are important to the ongoing discussions about U.S. policy towards Taiwan. That's great. And you, of course, had extensive background working in research centers. You worked for the Jamestown Foundation. You worked for Project 2049. And a lot of your work was focused on security issues, if I recall correctly. That is correct. Yes, I've worked for four years at the Jamestown Foundation as editor of its China Brief. And so that was a publication that was produced biweekly where we worked with subject matter experts from across the country and across the world, really, to bring together a great group of expertise to focus on contemporary developments related to the PRC, cross-strait military issues. And I was able to bring a lot of that over to my work here at the Global Taiwan Institute and one of our major programs. Secondly, also, what you already mentioned, that was at the Project 2049 Institute as well, an excellent institution that was established by Randy Schreiber and Mark Stokes. And learned a great deal about really doing deep-dive analysis on military security issues. And so really in those years that I spent in Washington working for this institution, it really gave me a good look and observation from what was really missing in the Taiwan piece of analysis and the discussion here. Well, that's great. Now, how do you differentiate yourself from Project 2049? What's the overlap? Where's the differences? Well, really, Project 2049 is an excellent research organization that has its core competency really at the military security research. And there's no sort of replacing that type of expertise with the type of research that Mark Stokes and Ian Easton do over there. And really, but there is such a wider gap of issues that are relate and affect U.S.-Taiwan relations that just isn't getting the coverage in D.C. for either financial reasons or for human or plain human resource reasons. And really here, GTI is there to fill this wide gap of analysis. That's great. That's great. As I said in my opening comments, it's unfortunate that Taiwan is often overlooked in the media and academia. In research centers, I know Washington is full of research centers and think tanks and all of them seem to deal with Taiwan to one degree or the other, but it doesn't seem to be the highest priority. That's an excellent point. I really want to sort of elaborate on and expand on that if I may. And that is, you know, I mean, yes, you've noted correctly noted that there are elements of Taiwan analysis in several of the major programs in Washington, D.C. and the larger think tanks. However, there are just oftentimes a subset of a larger China program. But there hasn't been any institution dedicated solely exclusively to Taiwan policy research. And really that is where GTI plays its the most important contributing role in that we provide a space for both analytical research as well as a platform for discussion in terms of the seminars that we organized to consistently provide more visibility to Taiwan policy issues as they relate to other discussions that are taking place in D.C. Did you get any, how should I put this delicately, I hope, did you get any hard elbows from some of the other research centers when you were starting out and said, like, why do you guys want to go this way? We already cover this. You just duplicate what we're doing, you know, sort of a little fearful of competition, maybe. You know, I mean, that's an excellent question and I do get that quite often. And I think, you know, and really the answer, and my honest answer here is that no, we did not. And I think that's because, you know, really, there just hasn't been any other organization like GTI. As I mentioned earlier, you know, for the most part, Taiwan, as it's covered in the major think tanks, are often a subset of a much larger China program. And so in the sense that where we are here to provide a sort of a complimentary role to a lot of the Taiwan programs that are out there to provide more research and analysis, we're here to also be able to provide, serve as a hub for that type of research and providing and also a place where these discussions can maybe had so that experts who do look at Taiwan and other institutions can have a place where we can have these discussions to understand really how Taiwan fits in the broader security environment in the Asia Pacific. You put it very well and actually I would say in academia, Taiwan is often treated as a subset of a course or something, some area of endeavor about China. Yeah, it's unfortunate because Taiwan has so many great lessons to teach the rest of the world. Right, right, and there's a great wealth of history there and a wealth of other issues that are often, as you've mentioned, overlooked. You know, there's a tendency in Washington D.C. to really, to lonely look at Taiwan in sort of four-year cycles. And there's a presidential election when there's an election around the corner, in which case, you know, a lot of analysts or government officials are concerned about, you know, the political risk of any type of change in power, or when there is an arms package on the horizon. And so like I was mentioning earlier, there is in between those four years, in between those arms packages, there's a huge gap of information developments that are happening in Taiwan. Cross-strait relations, U.S.-Taiwan relations, that just isn't getting enough coverage. And so GTIs, with its program, stands poised to really provide, you know, really the channels for a more sustained understanding about really a dynamic society that is ever-changing and also a political dynamic that influences cross-strait relations, which is the traditional sort of lens by which many U.S. policymakers look towards Taiwan, whether that is, that should be the case, I think we can certainly have a discussion about that perhaps in another forum. Let me make sure I understand your last comment here. Are you saying that so many people only look at Taiwan in terms of cross-strait relations? Yes, yes, that's what I'm saying. I couldn't agree with you more. I could not agree with you more. And if I add a little political note, I think this is a problem of the Kuomintang, the KMT, is rightly or wrongly the perception of the public, I believe in Taiwan, is that the Kuomintang only cares about cross-strait relations. It really doesn't care about anything else. And that's really to its detriment. Nationalist Kuomintang party officials tell me, well, they're working in other programs and all that, but if they are, they're not very visible. So your comment is very interesting. I think of that as also an extension of the framework of how U.S.-Taiwan relations had started post-1949 particularly. And with the old Kuomintang government at that time with a very assertive trying to retake the mainland, China. And so therefore the framework of that relationship had been, at least from the U.S. perspective, while trying to deter at least Chiang Kai-shek from retaking the mainland, also maintaining a good deal of support and defense relationship with the KMT in order to ensure that it does not get overtaken by the PRC. Well, let me ask you this question. How big is your annual budget? Well, we are a growing organization, so we are really looking at trying to expand. So currently right now we're looking at an annual budget of around closer to about 500,000, which is a decent size for the organization where we have four full-time staff members and a part-time staff. But with all the programs that we have, I like to think that we punch above our weight. That's good. And you're in a really great area of Washington. You're just off Dupont Circle, as I understand. That is correct, yes. That's a really good place for a nonprofit research center to be located, I think. Absolutely. We're surrounded by banking tanks and government offices and really the target audience, the type of people that we want to attract to our events. And so as I mentioned earlier, we have several programs that we have, which includes a public seminar series. Now, we've had eight public seminars so far already, coping a wide range of issues that ranges from Taiwan policy review, looking at cybersecurity, looking at Taiwan as a... Cybersecurity, that's good. We're coming right up on the break here. We've probably got about 30 seconds to break time. As you know, we have one minute break. And when we do come back to a break, we want to talk about some of the special programs you have and how you reach out to the public and your publications. And I think that would be something that our audience would be really interested in. And I suppose if anybody wants to get on your mailing list, they just get online, go to Global Taiwan Institute and sign up. GlobalTaiwan.org. GlobalTaiwan.org. Okay. Well, we're just about on break here, so I don't know if we want to get into anything substantive right now, but we'll go on the break and we'll come back in about a minute or so. Hello, everybody. My name is Mark Shklav. I'd like you to join me for my program, Law Across the Sea, on ThinkTechHawaii.com. Aloha. Hello, I'm Marianne Sasaki. Welcome to ThinkTechHawaii, where some of the most interesting conversations in Honolulu go on. I have a show on Wednesdays from one to two called Life in the Law, where we discuss legal issues, politics, governmental topics, and a whole host of issues. I hope you'll join me. Aloha. I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii Is My Mainland every Friday here on ThinkTechHawaii. I also have a blog of the same name at kauilukas.com, where you can see all of my past shows. Join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m. Aloha. Welcome back to Asian Review. My guest today is Russell Xiao. Russell is the executive director of the new GlobalTaiwan Institute, which is located just off of Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., and seeks to raise public awareness about Taiwan. A really great step forward, I think, in that Taiwan, unfortunately, given all its successes and, in my view, so many countries in the world, they could be as well off of Taiwan politically. That is, democratically and economically, they'd be quite happy. Unfortunately, Taiwan doesn't get the attention that it should because it's often overshadowed by China. Well, before the break, we were going to get into, we said we'd hold off until we came back from the break, some of your special programs, how you reach out to the public, some of your publications, and that kind of thing. So, do you want to tell us about those? Absolutely, Bill. And I think I just do, you know, elaborate some more about, you know, the mission of GTI. Sure. And that is, essentially, it's really to enhance U.S.-Taiwan relations. Okay. And the way we do that, you know, and the way we do that is through public policy research, through, you know, organizing programings that I'll go to in just a little bit. And so these programs that we have, we have currently four major programs. The first major program is a weekly publication called the Global Taiwan Brief. Now, as I mentioned earlier in the first segment of the show, I was previously the editor of China Brief. And really, I saw the value in terms of providing information and analysis. I might add, for the benefit of our viewing in public that might not be familiar with it, that China Brief is a very high quality publication. I personally benefited from it numerous times. Thank you very much, Bill. That's very nice of you to say. Thank you. And so really the model for this Global Taiwan Brief came from, you know, the work that I did over there at Jamestown Foundation. And the idea is to provide information and analysis and also contextualize analysis about current developments related to Taiwan. Now, you know, the scope of the topics that we cover is wide-ranging. And as I mentioned earlier, you know, the issues that we think are relevant to U.S.-Taiwan relations really should extend beyond just, you know, the traditional security issues while still very important and the political risk issues that often comes with any type of, you know, sort of electoral changes in Taiwan. And so through the publication, what we tried to do is to expand the crop of writers who look at Taiwan and to also expand the crop of issues. And so every week we invite three to four contributing authors to contribute short, brief, accessible articles to the publication about some contemporary developments related to Taiwan policy issues. And so just our most recent issue, in fact, was a special issue that included three articles contributed by David Nguyen, who is actually one of the architects of President Tsai Ing-wen's Asia Silicon Initiative, to include also Arthur Tu, who is a young entrepreneur who actually helped startups, tech startups in Taiwan, and also the vice president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, a lot of the Nelson person, and she wrote, you know, sort of a U.S. business perspective on the Asia Silicon Valley Initiative. And so, you know, this is really trying to provide, we try to provide a forum through Global Taiwan Brief for these, you know, timely discussions about policy issues that are relevant to U.S. and Taiwan. So this is one element of our programs. The second element of our programs is the public seminar series, just before we broke, you know, I mentioned that briefly. And that public seminar series is meant to raise the visibility of Taiwan, really be able to, you know, provide a platform for a discussion about contemporary policy issues related to Taiwan. And so we've held eight of these public seminars already, and the topics range from the Taiwan Policy Review where we had Richard Bush, who is a very well-known Taiwan hand, and also China hand, who serves as the former chairman of the AIT, and we provide remarks, former deputy director of AIT, David Keegan, as well as the director of the Asia Study Center, Walter Lohman. And, you know, it really just, we're trying to, you know, really bring in the expertise to help provide some context to these timely developments and being able to help inform, really, you know, current policymakers, the academics, as well as the public at large, about the importance of Taiwan and also the nuances of Taiwan policy, which often gets lost in a very, sort of, in often debates that we hear here in Washington and oftentimes here in other mainstream media outlets. And so we continuously try to raise the visibility by raising different issues that are relevant. So, for instance, as I mentioned earlier, we had a panel on cybersecurity, and there we brought a cybersecurity expert from the private sector to include my former colleague, Mark Stokes, who also happened to be one of our advisory board member. Now he was a former senior Pentagon official and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, now retired. And he's done a great deal of really extensive research on cybersecurity and how the People's Liberation Army is organized to wage cyber war and cyber espionage. And also to include another former Taiwanese naval attaché that, you know, works in the tech office and has good extensive knowledge in. And these are expertise that just aren't heard often enough. I mean, you know, releasing a one-time report, you know, often it's buried in a lot of the literature that gets produced out there about Taiwan. And, you know, and by having these timely events associated with current developments, we really get to highlight the importance of, you know, these literature and studies. And so that's the second element. We're in the process by now planning an annual symposium, which is going to be our flagship project, a conference, and that's going to be held sometime later this year. But the idea is quite simple and straightforward, and that is really to establish a baseline for assessing U.S. policy options towards Taiwan and really bringing together the supporters for a stronger U.S.-Taiwan relationship who may not necessarily agree on how to get there, to a stronger U.S. relationship and really setting up some metrics so that we can continuously and systematically assess really the benchmark of success, to assess the benchmark so that we know where, you know, where we are, where things work and where things aren't working. Okay. Well, let me ask you this. Okay, you're going to do these policy studies. You're going to have this symposium, the annual symposium. So what are you going to do with all this information? Are you going to, not just on pejorative, but how are you going to pedal it to the policymakers? You know, I mean, that's great. I mean, right now, that's a great question, Bill. And I think, you know, that's one, that's an issue that we're constantly strategizing and thinking about. And, you know, I think right now what we're doing is within our current strategy is to utilize our website as one of the main channels for communicating the ideas that we're producing to the outside world, that may be, you know, to our audience, to the audience in Washington, D.C., within, on the Capitol Hill or in different government agencies. And, you know, and the idea is to get, you know, our name out there cited by the, you know, the think tanks, excited by, you know, research institutions as credible analysis at which they are. And because what they offer is, again, you know, the Global Taiwan Brief offers something more than what, you know, the mainstream media can provide because it's written by experts who have looked at these issues, who have a deeper understanding about these issues, and hopefully can then provide a more nuanced understanding about these developments for what they mean. And so, you know, that's really what we hope that people will do in terms of, you know, going on our website at www.globaltaiwan.org and signing up to receive our newsletter. We also have our events. Let me ask you this. Let me ask this, President. Who's going to go to the State Department or Capitol Hill and say, look, this is what we think U.S. time, U.S. policy towards Taiwan should be. Who's going to be the chief salesman? Am I looking at him? Well, you know, I'm always selling to organizations, that's for sure. You know, I mean, this is, you know, this is really one of the, you know, this is a great organization, a great institution and really unprecedented. And, you know, I'm working with an excellent team of researchers who, you know, include a good friend and David Ahn who previously worked for the State Department and other individuals like Melissa Newcomb who worked at other research institutions in Washington, D.C., Annabelle. And, you know, and we're working with a great team also of international, well, advisory board members who are very well established in the, in this field, either in Taiwan studies or Taiwan military security studies. And, you know, I named a few earlier, but we have a group of 16 advisory board members currently. And, and, and they include some great people such as Gordon Chang, who voted on China. Ralph Costa, whom, you know, as, as you mentioned earlier, is a local of Hawaii and a great great great great mentor to to many young aspiring Asian, Asian hands. And, June Topol Dreyer, Daffy Thel. That's a very well known name, very well known name. Yes, right. David is, is, and maybe Europe's number one Taiwan expert. Yes, yes, excellent, excellent. He's done so much, so much work on Taiwan. It's just incredible. Yeah. I personally have never met him, but I'm quite familiar with his work. Oh, good, good. Good. Good. And then there are others like Shirley Khan, also who, you know, formerly worked at the Congressional Research Service. And she's another Hawaii product. Let me chime in on that. She's been on the show as well, actually. Oh, fantastic. That's great. That's great. And also former AIT director of Bill Stanton, and who I understand also was on the show to, to include former Ambassador Stephen Young and AIT director Stephen Young. Others like Arthur Waldron, who is one of the most prominent academics, you know, working on China and Taiwan issues. Toshi Yoshihara from the Naval War College. And so that's really naming a few have been John Tashik, Mark Stokes. We're coming down here to our last two minutes. Let's just talk a little bit about future plans. So to focus on that for maybe the last minute and a half or so. One minute. Right. I've been corrected. One minute. Okay. So we'll have to ask you, unfortunately, we'll have to ask you to make this brief. No worries. No worries. All right. So really the upcoming seminars that we have that are the most important to know is if we have a book talk with Misha Oslin coming up next Monday on his book, The End of the Asian Century. Now, this is a very provocative title sounding book, but we want to tease out the Taiwan significance to, you know, really the theories that he is, he is putting forward in his new book. We also have an excellent, excellent panel coming up on February 15th on President Trump's Taiwan policy. And so there we'll have Ambassador Stephen Young come down to give the opening remarks to include comments by Gordon Chang, Harry Kazianas, and our very own David Ahn. And, you know, we're really going to continue the momentum and try to continue. Russell, Russell, I don't want to cut you off, but it looks like the clock, which is always unfriendly to us, has become unfriendly again. So it looks like our time is up. And I want to thank Russell for joining us today from Washington, D.C., where it is 10.30 at night. So we really appreciate that. And his great introduction to the Global Taiwan Institute. I'm sure we all appreciate it. And we're glad to know about it. I also want to thank you for joining us. And I encourage you to join us again next week, February 13th at 5 p.m. When my guest will be Robert Landau, who is the Executive Director of the Hawaii Association for Independent Schools. He is working on a really special project to help further internationalize education in Hawaii, especially at Hawaii's prestigious Illinois School. So we'll see you then. Thank you for joining us.