Taipei Times (TT): Many think tanks already exist in Washington that conduct policy research, analysis and so on on issues pertaining to Taiwan-US relations and cross-strait developments. How is the Global Taiwan Institute [GTI] any different from these think tanks?
Jennifer Hu (胡兌昀): GTI is special in that it is a grassroots effort through Taiwanese-Americans, mostly Taiwanese-Americans who have lived in the US, a lot of them have lived there for decades, that together founded the organization. We decided to start an organization that is focused on Taiwan.
Traditionally think tanks in the US, especially the ones that are engaged in Taiwan studies, tend to place Taiwan either in an East Asian policy or a US-China program, or usually place Taiwan in an approximation toward China-Taiwan relation framework.
We want to take Taiwan out — focus on Taiwan and promote Taiwan in the think tank community that tends to look at Taiwan only through the lens of US-China relations.
The three components of our organization are the founders and the cofounders, the board members and the advisers. All three groups have their own expertise in their respective fields, and they come from different disciplines, different professions and have different types of experiences.
Half our board consists of people who are under the age of 44. It is actually in our by-laws that we require the board to have at least a certain proportion of the members being a younger group, the reason being that we want to be able to create, within our organization, a way for the older generation to pass on their knowledge and experience to the younger generation, and also for the younger generation to infuse into the organization new thinking and new ideas on how to promote Taiwan to the US.
TT: GTI says that its mission is to “enhance the relationship between Taiwan and other countries, especially the US, and promote better public understanding about Taiwan and its people.” What are the plans the institute has in mind to achieve these goals?
Hu: We have been operating for over two months now. We have held quite a few seminars and we publish a weekly brief, the “Global Taiwan Brief,” that features articles that are multifaceted. We have had seminars that discussed Taiwan policy reviews, cybersecurity and US-Taiwan maritime cooperation.
What we try to do is broaden the base, or issues and topics, that are related to Taiwan in Washington.
We have a visiting fellows program and GTI plans to provide scholarships to students. We have closed-door meetings, and have interactions with delegations from Taiwan. We also hold “Happy Hours” with other think tanks; we invite young scholars and professionals, the academia think tank community, [Capitol] Hill staffers, and people in general interested in policy discussion on Taiwan, or anything that is related to Taiwan. We are adding to what’s already there in DC and providing a platform so people can come to different events that focus on different issues.
TT: Well-established think tanks in the US are quite active and, directly or indirectly, involved in the policy-formulating process. Being new, how is GTI working to shape its influence and avoiding “fizzling out”?
Hu: We do have interactions with the [US] administration and the Hill. GTI’s focus right now is program development. To be able to influence polices, it takes time — and that comes when you establish yourself through the publications that you do, through the seminars that you host.
So far we think we have good results, and we are constantly thinking and planning ahead, how do we enrich our programs and how do we get more people involved.
We have 16 members on the advisory board, including two former directors of the American Institute in [Taiwan], and quite a few notable scholars with focus on Asian or Taiwan policy.
We plan to publish longer papers, more in-depth research and engage people in, say, the [US] State Department, the Hill, so that we can eventually get to influence policy.
Being in DC we have the advantage of reaching out to that broader policy community and starting to establish ourselves.
Since most of our founders and board members are Taiwanese-Americans, we want to make sure that we help Taiwan, but we also look at what’s in the US’ interest to help elevate Taiwan’s status.
TT: How would you define Taiwanese-Americans?
Hu: That’s not a very easy question. I define Taiwanese-Americans as someone who wants to identify themself heritage-wise as someone who were from Taiwan.
It is complicated because some people don’t necessarily identify themselves as Taiwanese even if their parents lived in Taiwan or came from Taiwan.
But there is a very strong group of Taiwanese-Americans who emigrated to the US, or went to study in the US between the ’50s and ’70s when Taiwan wasn’t a democratic country, and this group I think is very instrumental in cultivating this Taiwanese-American identity and community in the US.
That is the older generation and quite a few of them are founding members [of GTI]; they tend to be people who got their doctorates in the US and either stayed here [in the US] to work or couldn’t go back [to Taiwan] because of the blacklist. And of course, then in the ’80s we have people who came here as immigrants.
TT: You mentioned the older generation of Taiwanese-Americans, who played quite a role in Taiwan’s democratization. By contrast, do you think the younger generation of Taiwanese-Americans care much about Taiwan at all?
Hu: Yes, there are people who do care a lot about Taiwan, are very aware of what’s going on in Taiwan and they try to promote Taiwan in the work that they do. Some of them have actually participated in programs that bring Taiwanese-Americans to Taiwan to observe elections, or to tour around the island to understand Taiwan’s history more.
Some people came with groups like the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association, so there are people who have been very active since their student days. There are also people who are involved with Formosan Association for Public Affairs, so it is a multifaceted group of people.
But then there are people like me who are, probably what we would say the “1.5 generation,” who came to the US when we were younger. So everybody’s experience is a little different; the common frame for all of us is that we all really care and want to do something for Taiwan from our respective capacity.
TT: Based on information from the US 2010 Census, some of the characteristics of Taiwanese-Americans include being highly educated, having a high income and holding managerial positions in the work that they do, but very few seem to be involved with politics. What do you think the prospect is for Taiwanese-Americans pursuing a political career?
Hu: We do want the community to be able to cultivate individuals who can and will play a role in the political system. We do have lot of Taiwanese-Americans who participate and volunteer, there are people who’ve done internships on the Hill in DC, and there are also people who engage in political activities locally in their states, counties in the US.
I think only focusing on Taiwanese-Americans may not be the easiest example because the Taiwanese-American group is small; according to the US 2010 census, the self-identified Taiwanese-Americans in that census are 230,000, although we estimate there is at least more than double that amount of people who are Taiwanese-Americans.
How they identify themselves within the US, that is a different story. The way they do the census, you don’t check some box, but have to write it in.
So there was a movement, an initiative in the Taiwanese-American community, that tried to encourage people to write it in.
How do you get people to be more politically involved? I think that takes a little time, because traditionally Taiwanese families encourage their children to excel academically and they typically go for the traditional professions like medicine, law, the tech industry, finance and such.
But there are people with political aspirations; so as a community, how do you cultivate them and help them? There is Representative Ted Lieu [a Democrat from California], who is the second Taiwan-born US congressman, and Representative Grace Meng [a Democrat], whose parents are from Taiwan, is the first Asian-American member of Congress elected from New York state. Michelle Wu is the first Taiwanese-American woman elected as president of the Boston City Council.
There are people in different aspect of it [the politics], we have people in the government, people in the local governments,and people who are judges, federal judges. They are in the political system, but they may not be as “visible.”
TT: You mentioned the word “visible.” What do you think Taiwanese-Americans can do to enhance their visibility within the mainstream American public, and by doing so, raise awareness about Taiwan?
Hu: There is a bigger Asian-American community and Taiwanese-Americans are also part of that. Some people do belong to their professional organizations that gear toward Asian-Americans, for example, the Asian-American Bar Association, Asian-American Medical Doctor Association and such.
Within that, I do see the virtue of being able to promote, so there is this bigger Asian-American community and some people know they have to raise awareness not only of themselves being Taiwanese-Americans, but also Asian-Americans.
I think one of the ways of doing this is through interact with your colleagues; if you are a student, you engage with your classmates. In our respective professions, that’s how you raise awareness. So there is an individual level and there is this collective-group level.
What the GTI’s role could be in the future, we hope, is focusing on Taiwan in its own right, there is a lot of room for discussions that will connect Taiwan in the US, and even Taiwan with other countries.
TT: The Pew Research Center has for years conducted surveys gauging the US public’s views about China, Japan and their bilateral relationships with the US. Has GTI considered collaborating with the center to find out the general US public’s view is about Taiwan?
Hu: We are more focused on doing policy, research, papers, seminars. The one you are talking about is more sort of grassroots understanding of Taiwan and surveys about Taiwan.
I actually think they are very important and also could help identify what we can do to help promote US-Taiwan relations or Taiwan’s profile. That is definitely something we can look into.
We are a rookie think tank, so we do want to work with existing think tanks in DC to help run certain programs that would raise the profile of Taiwan even more.
We truly appreciate the attention we have gained in Taiwan and among Taiwanese-Americans, and we do hope to add to the existing sphere of Taiwanese-American groups to help elevate Taiwan.
I think we are a strong addition; we want to continue helping other associations as well, to collectively broaden that support for Taiwan and raise the profile for Taiwan in the US.
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