 My name is Jeremy Barma. I'm the founding director of the Australian Centre on China in the world and I'm delighted to welcome you all here today I must also say I'm particularly delighted to have our Vice-Chancellor Ian Young here today And he will speak in a few moments. One of the reasons being that this hall Would not exist without the Vice-Chancellor's direct support and it's a reality It's added significantly to this building, our centre, its functions and also the ability Centre to engage broadly with the university community and also with the broader international academic community and our own community here in Canberra and in saying that I'd say that we are We celebrate the fact that we are on the traditional land of the Ngunnawal people And we are for the moment custodians of that land just as we are in the center of the custodians of the tradition of Dealing with what we speak of as being the world that creates meaning using Chinese languages and ideas And this is a custodianship that goes back Predates this university goes back to 1932 when the Georgie Morrison Lectures in Ethnology were established here in Canberra by The Australian Chinese community with the support of local scientists and academics And then you became the inheritor of that tradition of lectureship in the early 1950s under The leadership of our first vice-chancellor Douglas Copeland and noted Economist and noted diplomat and the man who brought Chinese studies to the ANU as the first vice-chancellor Created our Chinese Studies library and also engaged meaningfully with the world in Taiwan and mainland China a Unique figure who had a great and profound influence on everything that's been done at this university since and A person whose work will celebrate in our next exhibition Because his significance is that there's one that has allowed really this center to be created as a center that was established in 2010 with the support of the Commonwealth government and our then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and our university in Creating a center the names that trying to engage with what we call either the Chinese Commonwealth or Greater China or again, I say we sometimes speak of the Sino sphere that will but uses Chinese languages to create significance and meaning for mankind That's why you'll notice we call our center the中华全球研究中心 and not the中华 全球研究中心中华 being as you know a much more ancient term and one signifying that which is flourishes, cultivates, expands and engages with that which is possible in in terms of civilization And we named our center very purposely this way says to try and encompass some of the complexity and realities of the world of China and it's not just the People's Republic of China. I'm delighted that we are celebrating our activities with this First conference of the year that's about Taiwan Taiwan a part of the world But in the 1930s and 40s is called in Australia the near north So having a view from the south of the near north is a wonderful thing for us to be doing every year 2015 And in particular in regard to that I congratulate the Benjamin Penny my deputy director Good friend and colleague who's put a huge amount of work into creating this conference along with our Store-waters and superwoman Nancy Chu The organizer In our world but also our many other CIW colleagues all of whom are participating in various ways and helping coordinate and organize The conference in practical terms. We thank the university for its support and also for the Taipei Taipei Economic Cultural Office here in Australia as Ben pointed out earlier Catherine junk has been a wonderful support Yeah, how it has has William Lynn. We're very sorry that Catherine. It's gone But I'm delighted to welcome here today as perhaps one of his first official duties They believe some participation this evening. There's a wonderful opportunity for us And I'll say a few words about David in a moment after I've introduced the vice chancellor and also delighted to Congratulate I've been from you answer cultural educational foundation for its support I congratulate you for supporting this wonderful enterprise and also Good friends of ours and great collaborators in the Academy of Seneca the Institute of Taiwan's history of Taiwan history rather These groups have all been crucial in us being this event together and I hope Creating a wonderful conference over the next few days. I'm also delighted to talk about keynote speakers have been able to Well nearly all of them coming on to join us And we look very much forward to your contributions to the following days I won't say any more. If I could thank you all for being here and to welcome our vice chancellor in Say a few words Jeremy, thank you very much for those opening comments and introduction on behalf of the Australian National University I'd like to warmly welcome the university all of our guests for this international conference on Taiwan Studies As Jeremy said a new through What is the a new College of Asian Pacific is one of the world's leading centers for teaching and research on Asia? And indeed again as Jeremy said that really stems from the foundations of this university When the university was created in 1946 one of our founding schools where the was the research school of Pacific Studies Set up to drive ANU's engagement with the region and it aimed essentially to position ANU as a global center of excellence in research teaching and influence on the whole region of Asian Pacific And today we can boast I think Without too much doubt that ANU hosts what is the largest concentration of regional experts of any university in the English speaking world And that's quite a remarkable Achievement when you consider just how important Asian Pacific is today We have amongst the things that ANU does we have the widest range of courses On Asia Pacific in Australia and offer the largest range of languages From this region of any university in this country Of all of our links to Asia, we're particularly proud of our very strong connections with Taiwan's academic institutions And we're also very pleased to be able to welcome so many of our friends from Taiwan here to the university for this important conference Just last year the university hosted the very popular made in Taiwan exhibition an exhibition from the Taiwan Academy of Fine Arts That was hosted at the ANU School of Art and represented a diverse range of Taiwanese visual art Early in 2014 a new memorandum of understanding was signed between ANU and the National Central Library of Taiwan We agreed amongst various things to share bibliographic records of our Chinese rare books with the National Central Library For their newly developed Union catalogue of Chinese rare books database ANU also boasts a whole range of relationships with Taiwanese academic institutions including A very close relationship with the Taiwan National Sun Yat-sen University The National Taiwan Normal University and the National Taiwan University All of whom are ANU exchange partners and of course for a university which boasts such a wide range of Asian studies And indeed has such extensive language programs as we do Those sorts of exchange programs are in significant demand with our students Amongst all of those activities I think one of which is particularly significant to note is that Just last year we agreed with the Ministry of Education to extend the well-established Taiwan Studies Program The ANU runs which includes courses in Taiwanese history, cinema, culture, arts, calligraphy, language and literature So going well beyond the narrow range of activities that you would normally see within many universities So with those opening comments I think you can see that ANU doesn't do boast very significant links to Taiwan Links which as I said are very deep, meaningful and ones that we're very proud of And so I'm very pleased to be able to be here today for this important opening of this conference on Taiwan Studies And I hope that you find it both a rewarding and very interesting conference over the next few days Thank you all very much Vice Chancellor, thank you very much indeed And now it's my great pleasure to welcome the new representative of the Republic of China here in Canberra Dr Lee Dawei or David Dawei Lee We are very honored to have Dr Lee Heatonite but also here in Australia As he has a broad experience of dealing with what for this country is of great importance And that is the relationship with the United States Something that looms large in this country's own concerns with our region and with the future of the region Relationships with the Chinese world You may well have all seen the recent poll results of today of the Chinese Research Institute at UTS in Sydney Run by again another good friend of ours Bob Carr Which speaks about Australia's response to the possible conflict over territorial issues between China and Japan People's Republic and Japan come in times and how the vast majority of respondents to questions on this subject Resiled from peaking sides and wanting to be involved Anyway, Dr Lee has had a very vast experience He has held the PhD in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia in the States But has had a vast experience of dealing with the United States And has written widely also on the Taiwan Relations Act that crucial and complicated document related to Taiwan So we're not only welcoming a season diplomat, a season foreign affairs thinker, strategist But also a colleague and a co-academic So thank you so much, David What's Chancellor Yang, Professor Barme, distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen Thank you so much for your very kind introduction I think it gives me a great pleasure to host this evening's reception with CIW at ANU I think over the years and the leadership of Professor Barme I think this institute has really excelled at the world stage on the study of China and the world And as we know that my country, Republic of China and Taiwan Is a relatively much smaller country in terms of geographic size to compare with Australia Australia in terms of the land mass is 214 times larger than Taiwan However, we maintain almost the same size of population, 23 million people And Taiwan now is the number 7 export market for Australia And the 11th trading partner And last year I think it was the year of 2013 The total trade volume reached the $11.6 billion I can tell you that 70% of the iron ore we import came from this country And also 40% of the coal also came from Australia I think that tells you that we have a very extensive and substantive relationship Currently we also have close to 30,000 young people They are taking advantage of the generosity of this country And they are on their working holiday tour in this country And that makes Taiwan as the second largest contributor to this program Only next to the United Kingdom And also I think before I came to this country President Ma Ying-jeou told me in person He told me that he has put a very high premium on the bilateral relationship He also told me the story that in 2006 when he was mayor of Taipei He came to Canberra and was well received by the Australian government And during the conversation he was very much inspired by many of the ideas of this great country And I think that was the inception of his viable diplomacy since 2008 Which is calling for transparency and good governance And over the past few years our two countries have worked together To exchange opinions and information on the economic cooperation in this southern Pacific region With that effort I think that has really increased the mutual trust between our two countries I hope in the coming years I'll be able to work with each of you Trying to help to improve the mutual interest and benefits of our two countries Thank you so much