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Taiwan's Bid for TPP Membership and the Potential Impact on Taiwan-U.S. Relations

  • Kwei-Bo Huang,

On October 17-18, 2014 the Taiwan Democracy Project at CDDRL, with the generous support of the Taipei Economic and Culture Office, hosted its annual conference at Stanford University to examine the politics of polarization in Taiwan.

This conference brought together specialists from Taiwan, the U.S., and elsewhere in Asia to examine the sources and implications of this political polarization in comparative perspective. It will include a special case study of the Trade in Services Agreement with China that triggered this past year’s protests, as well as a more general overview of the politics of trade liberalization in Taiwan, prospects for Taiwan’s integration into the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other regional trade agreements, and a consideration of the implications for Taiwan’s long-term democratic future.

Kwei-Bo Huang (黃奎博) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Diplomacy at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Dr. Huang was Chairman of the Research and Planning Committee in the R.O.C. Ministry of Foreign Affairs from February 2009 to January 2011. He was also Vice President of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) between July 2009 and January 2011, as well as a Board Member of the Prospect Foundation in Taipei between November 2009 and January 2011. Prior to his public service years, he was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, and founding director of NCCU’s International Master’s Program in International Studies (IMPIS). His research interests include US foreign policy and decision-making toward East Asia, international conflict management (including international negotiation), public diplomacy, and intra-regional security issues of Southeast Asia. He holds a master's degree in political science from the George Washington University and a Ph.D. in government and politics from University of Maryland, College Park in 2001. In addition to his academic and government work, Dr. Huang is the Executive Director of the preparatory office of NCCU’s Vicent Siew International Exchange Program, Supervisor of the Taiwan Fulbright Alumni Association, as well as Secretary-General of the Taipei-based Association of Foreign Relations (AFR), a non-profit organization led by former foreign minister Francisco H.L. Ou.