As the Trump administration fills its cabinet and fashions a new approach to the Indo-Pacific, the role of Taiwan in U.S. policy again takes center stage. What does the return of Donald Trump to the White House mean for U.S.-Taiwan relations? What changes, if any, can be ascertained from his first two months in office regarding U.S. relations with Taiwan? And how might China react to a re-fashioned U.S. approach to Taiwan? 

Led by Lyle Morris, Senior Fellow on Foreign Policy and National Security, Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis (CCA), the conversation will feature Simona Grano, CCA Senior Fellow on Taiwan; XIN Qiang, Director of the Center for Taiwan Studies and Deputy Director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, China; and Jessica Chen Weiss, CCA Senior Fellow on Chinese Politics, Foreign Policy, and National Security.

SPEAKERS

Simona Grano is a Senior Fellow on Taiwan at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis. She is also currently a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Taiwan Studies Project at the University of Zurich.

Simona has held research positions and taught China Studies and Taiwan Studies at her alma mater, at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and at National Cheng'chi University in Taiwan.

Simona completed her Ph.D. in Chinese Studies at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy in 2008. She is a research fellow of the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan in Tübingen, Germany, and a research associate of SOAS, London.

Simona is the author of Environmental Governance in Taiwan: A New Generation of Activists and Stakeholders, published in 2015 by Routledge. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Civil Society, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, China Information, Asiatische Studien, Taiwan in Comparative Perspective, and Orizzonte Cina. Her latest edited volume: China-U.S. Competition: Impact on Small and Middle Powers' Strategic Choices, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in December 2022.

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. Qiang 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.

Jessica Chen Weiss is a Senior Fellow on Chinese Politics, Foreign Policy, and National Security at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. She is also the David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. From August 2021 to July 2022, she served as senior advisor to the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department on a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars. Jessica is the author of Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2014). Her research appears in International Organization, China Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Security Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, and Review of International Political Economy, as well as in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Quarterly. Weiss was previously an assistant professor at Yale University and founded FACES, the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford University. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, she received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. 

Lyle 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.