Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in these podcasts are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the NRC. Through these podcasts, we encourage listeners to engage in the topics covered and assess their own points of views, based on the views presented by these experts.
S2 Ep 1: Digital Democracy and Civic Tech in Taiwan
In this episode, NRC Program Associate Richard Haddock sits down with Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang to explore what digital democracy means and looks like in action. Minister Tang discusses open government, civic technology, how misinformation and disinformation were addressed in Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election, and the ethical and practical limits of technology use in governance.
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Audrey Tang is the Digital Minister of Taiwan and the first openly transgender government minister in the world. Minister Tang is known for revitalizing the computer languages Perl and Haskell, as well as building the online spreadsheet system EtherCalc in collaboration with Dan Bricklin. In the public sector, Minister Tang served on the Taiwan National Development Council’s open data committee and K-12 curriculum committee; and led Taiwan’s first e-Rulemaking project. In the private sector, Minister Tang worked as a consultant with Apple on computational linguistics, with Oxford University Press on crowd lexicography, and with Socialtext on social interaction design. Minister Tang actively contributes to Taiwan’s g0v (“gov-zero”), a vibrant community focusing on creating tools for the civil society, with the call to “fork the government.”
S2 Ep 2: Covering The Other Half Billion: China’s Rural Sector
In this episode, NRC Program Associate Richard Haddock interviews Professor Robert Ash, Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan at the School of Oriental & African Studies in the University of London, on the topic of economic development and poverty alleviation issues in China’s rural sector. Professor Ash addresses Chinese historical economic developments that are important to understanding contemporary politics, and gives his take on the progress and trends of rural economic development in China.
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Professor Robert Ash is a Professorial Fellow in the China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he teaches in the School of Financial and Management Studies as Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan. From 1986 to 1995 he was Head of the Contemporary China Institute at SOAS, and from 1997-2001 was Director of the EU-China Academic Network (ECAN). From 1999 to 2013 he was also Director of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Programme.
Professor Ash has held visiting research and teaching positions at universities in Australia, Hong Kong, France and Italy. He has been researching China for more than 40 years and has published on development issues relating to China, as well as on Taiwan and Hong Kong. His most recent major publication (2017) is a study of China’s agricultural development between 1840 and the present day, Agricultural Development in the World Periphery: A Global Economic History Approach. He has also undertaken a wide range of consultancy work in both private and public sectors—including for the British Government, the European Commission, European Parliament and the UN International Labour Organisation.
S2 Ep 3: Pandemic Politics in Southeast Asia
In this episode, NRC Program Associate Richard Haddock sits down with Julia Lau to analyze the present situation in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, and discuss how this crisis might lead to political change in the Southeast Asian region in the coming years.
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Dr. Yao-Tsung Su is currently conducting his research on the “US Policy Towards Taiwan, 1941 to 1949” as a visiting scholar of the EAVI Fellowship Program at GW. He received his PhD in History from the University of Kyoto, Japan. In pursuit of acquiring knowledge in Chinese Buddhist history, he lived and studied for seven years in Kyoto. During this time, his areas of research focused mainly on the religious policy of the Tang dynasty and the interaction between China and Japan in Buddhism. Upon his return to Taiwan, he turned to study the postwar history of Taiwan. His postwar research topics focused on the history of the disposition policy towards Taiwan by the United States and China from 1941 to 1949 and the related issues regarding the 228 Incident. He is currently working on a project called Research on the Truth and the Transitional Justice of the 228 Incident by the Memorial Foundation of the 228 Incident. He also directs a project exhibition titled The 40th Anniversary of the Kaohsiung Incident by the Kaohsiung Museum.
S2 Ep 4: Arsenals in the U.S.-China Trade War: What’s Used and How
In this episode, NRC Curriculum Designer Aika Okishige interviews Prof. Yan Bennett, Assistant Director for the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China at Princeton University. Prof. Bennett shares her insights on the U.S.-China trade relationship and informs us about the implications of the current trade war. In addition, she offers her predictions and thoughts regarding the future of U.S.-China bilateral relations.
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Yan Bennett, JD, teaches Law and Diplomacy at the Elliott School. She is the Assistant Director for the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China at Princeton University. She most recently worked at the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program (now Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program) at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Before coming to Princeton, Bennett was a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State and served overseas in Singapore, China, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In China, she reported on U.S. corporate labor practices, intellectual property issues, and the results of a municipal election in Guangdong Province. In Bosnia, Bennett served as special assistant to the ambassador and supported senior staff in achieving foreign policy and national security objectives. She has received awards for superior performance from the State Department, including a personal commendation from Secretary Powell. As a legal scholar, she has a number of publications on China’s legal reform and on the rule of law under the Xi administration.
