On July 31, 2024, the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis launched the Taiwan Policy Database (TPD), — a one-of-a-kind interactive website highlighting the policies that have shaped cross-Strait policy from all three sides: the United States, the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan. The website features a dynamic timeline featuring the original source documents, agreements, and speeches that have formed the foundation of Taiwan policy.

Join us for a virtual launch event of the TPD featuring a panel of experts from the United States, China, and Taiwan who will discuss the utility and value of the website. Led by Lyle Morris, Senior Fellow on Foreign Policy and National Security at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, the conversation will feature Raymond F. Burghardt, previous U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam and former Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan; Rorry Daniels, Managing Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute and Senior Fellow at the Center for China Analysis; Wen-Ti Sung, Nonresident Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub; and XIN Qiang, Director of the Center for Taiwan Studies and Deputy Director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Speakers

Raymond F. Burghardt, President of the Pacific Century Institute, was nominated as Ambassador to Vietnam by President George W. Bush on September 4, 2001, and confirmed by the Senate on November 15, 2001. Ambassador Burghardt served as Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), an organization established by Congress in 1979 to manage U.S. relations with Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, from 2006 to 2016. Concurrently with his position as AIT Chairman, Ambassador Burghardt was the Director of East-West Seminars at the East-West Center in Honolulu (2005–2012). For many years, Burghardt was one of the leading Asian specialists in the U.S. Foreign Service. He was the American Consul General in Shanghai (1997–99), Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassies in Manila (1993–96) and Seoul (1990-93), Political Counselor in Beijing (1987–89), and Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia Affairs from 1980 to 1982. In March 1982, he represented the State Department in the first U.S. Government delegation to Hanoi to negotiate a resolution to the issue of American servicemen missing in action. Before that, he worked as a political officer at the American Embassy in Saigon (1971–73) and as a refugee affairs officer for the Agency for International Development in the Gia Dinh Province (1970–71).

Ambassador Burghardt’s previous positions have also included an assignment on the National Security Council staff as Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and Senior Director of Latin American Affairs. He also served at the U.S. Embassies in Honduras and Guatemala. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia before joining the Foreign Service.

XIN Qiang is the inaugural Director of the Center for Taiwan Studies (2014–present) and Deputy Director of the Center for American Studies (2007–present) at Fudan University. He teaches and studies Taiwan issues, U.S.-China relations, and maritime security studies. Professor Xin is the author of Mainland China’s Taiwan Policy: From Peaceful Development to Selective Engagement (London: Routledge, 2022), Interpreting U.S. Taiwan Policymaking: Perspective of Congress (Shanghai: People's Press, 2010), Congress: Behavior Patterns of U.S. Congress Diplomacy (Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2005), and co-author of U.S. Congress and U.S. Security Policy toward China, 1989–2004 (Beijing: Shishi Press, 2005). He is also the translator of several classic works, including Theory of International Politics by Kenneth Waltz; Man, the State, and War by Kenneth Waltz; and After Hegemony by Robert Keohane. Xin has written extensively and published numerous articles in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, and China (on the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan). He serves on the editorial board of a number of journals, including the Journal of Contemporary China, Taiwan Research Journal, Fudan American Review, and Cross-Taiwan Strait Studies.

Rorry Daniels is the Managing Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), where she leads and oversees strategy and operations for ASPI’s projects on security, climate change, and trade throughout Asia. She is also a Senior Fellow with ASPI’s Center for China Analysis. She was previously with the National Committee on American Foreign Policy where she managed the organization’s Track 2 and research portfolio on Asia security issues, with a particular focus on cross–Taiwan Strait relations, U.S.-China relations, and the North Korean nuclear program. Her most recent research project audited the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue to evaluate its process and outcomes.

She regularly writes and provides analysis for major media outlets and newsletters on security issues in the United States and the Asia-Pacific. She is a 2022 Mansfield-Luce scholar, a member of both the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the National Committee on North Korea, a Pacific Forum Young Leader, as well as a Korea Society Kim Koo Foundation Fellow (2015 cohort). She earned her MS in International Relations at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, where she focused on East and South Asia. She is proficient in Mandarin and holds a BA in Media Studies from Emerson College.

Wen-Ti Sung is a Nonresident Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. He is also a sessional lecturer at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific and a member of the Australian Centre on China in the World. A political scientist by training, Wen-Ti’s research focuses on U.S.-China-Taiwan trilateral relations, with particular interest in Taiwanese politics and Chinese leadership tracking. His writings in these areas have appeared in the Conversation, the New Atlanticist, CSIS PacNet, the Interpreter, East Asia Forum, and the Diplomat.

Wen-Ti's analysis has been quoted by outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Time. He has also appeared on CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, Reuters, AFP, ABC, and National Public Radio, among others.

Lyle J. Morris (Moderator) is a Senior Fellow on Foreign Policy and National Security at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis (CCA). Prior to joining CCA, Lyle was a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, leading projects on Chinese military modernization and Asia-Pacific security from 2011 to 2022. From 2019 to 2021, Morris served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) as the Country Director for China, advising OSD on defense relations between the Department of Defense and the People's Liberation Army and on Indo-Pacific maritime security. He received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service for his service. Before joining RAND, Lyle was the 2010–11 Next Generation Fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research and a research intern with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Lyle lived and studied in Beijing, China, for four years, where he studied Mandarin at the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua University and later worked at Dentsu Advertising and the China Economic Journal.

Lyle holds an MA in international affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, earning a Certificate in East Asian Studies from Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, and a BA in international business from Western Washington University.