Lei Chen Lecture | Global Taiwan Resisting the Chinese Empire: Taiwan's Geopolitical Moment

In the current global situation, Taiwan is situated at the core of the first island chain in the Western Pacific, serving as a hotspot for global geopolitical competition. In recent years, Taiwan has faced increasingly elevated threats from China, ranging from military intimidation, cyberattacks, economic coercion, to sharp power operations. Not only is an authoritarian China increasingly likely to use force to advance on, blockade, or even invade Taiwan, but its various sharp power interventions and gray-zone tactics targeting Taiwan's politics, economy, society, and culture will also intensify. Taiwan's free and democratic system is facing severe challenges, and the escalating crisis in the Taiwan Strait impacts peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, sounding an alarm for democrats worldwide. How we respond to "Taiwan's geopolitical moment" is an issue of shared concern for the international community.

For the second Lei Chen Democracy and Human Rights Memorial Lecture of 2023, we are honored to invite researcher Wu Chieh-min from the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, to deliver a lecture on "Global Taiwan Resisting the Chinese Empire: Taiwan's Geopolitical Moment." Drawing upon his past thirty years of experience in Chinese and Taiwanese studies, he will analyze Taiwan's position at a moment of geopolitical shift. He will explore how, under the influence of the China factor, Taiwan can respond to challenges, seize opportunities, and forge itself into a Global Taiwan to resist the absorption and annexation of the Chinese Empire.

Wu Chieh-min has recently published an expanded and revised edition of his book Renting China, with its English edition, Rival Partners, winning the 2023 American Sociological Association Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Best Scholarly Book Award. The book was praised by Professor Ching Kwan Lee of UCLA as opening up "an original and exemplary research path from a new perspective rooted in the Taiwan factor." Elizabeth J. Perry, Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, commented: "Whatever the future may hold, Wu Chieh-min's penetrating analysis of China's economic trajectory over the past four decades will stand as a major contribution to our understanding of the PRC's historic rise. Combining rich ethnographic detail with a comprehensive theoretical framework linking international linkages and local governance networks, Wu offers a compelling account of one of the most significant and unexpected stories of our time." In addition to his academic research, he is also diligent in publishing articles and accepting media interviews, excelling at social communication through accessible language, making him deeply loved and welcomed by the younger generation.

This lecture also invites Professor Ch'en Jo-shui from the Department of History at National Taiwan University to serve as a discussant, responding to the speaker's viewpoints. Not only is he a renowned scholar of Chinese cultural history, but his recent popular posts published on Facebook and blogs—such as "US-Skepticism and US-Hatred" and "Anti-War, Anti-Aggression, and Anti-Resistance"—have been widely circulated and shared online, becoming the focal point of public discourse in Taiwan. We believe that these two speakers, possessing both deep academic grounding and exceptional eloquence, will undoubtedly spark wisdom and deliver a wonderfully brilliant intellectual feast for the audience.

Those who pre-register and successfully check in on the day of the lecture will receive a complimentary copy of a book by Lei Chen on-site. Quantities are limited while supplies last.

Online Registration

Time

Saturday, October 21, 2023, 09:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Location

1st Floor International Conference Hall, Tsai Lecture Hall (Lien-ze Hall), College of Law, National Taiwan University
No. 4, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Da'an Dist., Taipei City

Speakers

Keynote Speaker

Wu Chieh-min holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, and a joint-appointment Professor at the Institute of Sociology, National Tsing Hua University, where he co-founded the Center for Contemporary China Studies. Having engaged in China studies since the 1990s and conducted long-term fieldwork in China, he is the author of Renting China: Taiwanese Businessmen, the Guangdong Model, and Global Capitalism (2023 expanded edition) and the English edition Rival Partners: How Taiwanese Entrepreneurs and Guangdong Officials Forged the China Development Model (tr. by Stacy Mosher, 2022), Harvard University Asia Center. He is also the co-editor of China’s Influence and the Center-periphery Tug of War in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indo-Pacific (2021) (Chinese edition: The Sharp Power Machine: China's Influence Operations and the Center-Periphery Tug-of-War in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Indo-Pacific, 2023), The Python in the Chandelier: Action and Reaction of the China Factor (2017) (Japanese edition: 「中国ファクター」の政治社会学——台湾社会における中国の影響力の浸透, 2021), An Age of Colorful Order: 1990-2010 (2nd ed., 2014), and The Third China Imagination (2012), among other books.

Wu Chieh-min's objective in studying China is, first, to advocate for "studying China as China," rather than using terms like "the mainland," "the opposite shore," or "the Chinese Communist Party" to obscure the essence of the interactive relationship between Taiwan and China. Second, to rigorously analyze how the People's Republic of China influences Taiwan's democratic process and national status. Finally, he hopes to propose a new research agenda for Taiwan's relations with China to replace traditional cross-strait relations studies that have gradually lost their insight. In this regard, Elizabeth J. Perry, Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, commented: "Whatever the future may hold, Wu Chieh-min's penetrating analysis of China's economic trajectory over the past four decades will stand as a major contribution to our understanding of the PRC's historic rise. Combining rich ethnographic detail with a comprehensive theoretical framework linking international linkages and local governance networks, Wu offers a compelling account of one of the most significant and unexpected stories of our time."

Discussant

Ch'en Jo-shui holds a Ph.D. in History from Yale University. He is currently a Distinguished Professor and Chair Professor in the Department of History at National Taiwan University, and a joint-appointment Research Fellow at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. He has previously served as Deputy Director of the Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica, Deputy Director of the Center for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Ministry of Science and Technology, Deputy Director of the Center for General Education at National Taiwan University, and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at National Taiwan University. His specialties include medieval Chinese history, Chinese intellectual history, and comparative intellectual history. He is the author of Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T’ang China, 773-819, History of Chinese Culture (co-authored), Women's Culture and Family Life in the T'ang Dynasty, T'ang Literati and the Transformation of Chinese Thought (first and expanded editions), The Concept of Public Justice and Chinese Culture, and New Explorations in Chinese History and Culture, along with dozens of academic papers.

In addition to academic works, Ch'en Jo-shui frequently publishes short articles on Facebook, blogs, and online forums to comment on public issues. His recent popular posts such as "US-Skepticism and US-Hatred" and "Anti-War, Anti-Aggression, and Anti-Resistance" have been widely circulated and shared online, making him an influential opinion leader in Taiwanese society.

Agenda

Time	Content	Speaker
08:30-09:00	Participant Check-in	--
09:00-09:30	Opening Remarks	Moderator: Professor Ch'en Chun-hung Guest Speaker: To be invited
09:30-09:40	Group Photo	Lei Chen's family members present flowers and take a group photo
09:40-10:40	Keynote Speech	Professor Wu Chieh-min
10:40-11:00	Discussion & Commentary	Professor Ch'en Jo-shui
11:00-11:30	Q&A and Response	All
11:30	Lecture Concludes	--

Organizers

Public Welfare Trust Lei Chen Democracy and Human Rights Fund
Human Rights Committee, Taiwan Bar Association
Taipei Bar Association
Center for Public Law, National Taiwan University
Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Taiwan Judicial Reform Foundation

Media Partner

Law Delivered (Legal Easy)