Xi Jinping in Washington: The Taiwan Factor

A series of recent, high-profile news stories are already shadowing preparations for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington later this month: regional security tensions driven by Beijing’s expansive territorial claims in disputed waters of the South China Sea; global reverberations from the Shanghai stock market implosion and China’s general economic slowdown; and new revelations about systematic, Beijing-directed economic cybertheft.

But missing from the headlines—and also crucially relevant to President Xi’s forthcoming meetings with President Obama—is Taiwan, a regional player in the Western Pacific with a continuing, significant role and stake in bilateral, U.S.-China relations.

On Tuesday, September 8, Hudson Institute hosted a panel discussion on the various confluences and disjunctions in current U.S., Taiwanese, and Chinese strategy—and the extent to which Taiwan, in particular, will weigh in the balance as Beijing and Washington continue their struggle for cooperation and competitive advantage in Asia and around the world. Featured participants included: Hudson Senior Fellows Seth Cropsey and Michael Pillsbury; Parris Chang, president of the Taiwan Institute for Political, Economic and Strategic Studies and former deputy secretary general of Taiwan’s National Security Council; and Ian Easton, a research fellow specializing on Asian defense and security issues at the Project 2049 Institute.