Events Detail

Another Rising China: Will Taiwan Escape the Straits?

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

12:00 - 2:00 PM

           William Rowe

        Charles Horner

The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed this past June between China and Taiwan has already become a source of political controversy. For some, the arrangement all but ensures Taiwan's deepening ultimate political subordination to Beijing. For others, ECFA could provide Taiwan the freedom to solidify robust commercial ties with Asia and the rest of the world to ward off pressure from Beijing. Taiwan may thus be able to resume the broad relationship with the world at-large that it once had.

To reflect on these broader themes, Professor William Rowe of Johns Hopkins University — a leading historian of late imperial China — addressed Taiwan's socio-economic relations with Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Rowe is the John and Diane Cooke Professor of Chinese History in the Department of History at Hopkins; Chairman of the Department of History; and Director of East Asian Studies. Most recently, he is the author of China's Last Empire: The Great Qing.

Commenting on Rowe's observations were Hudson Senior Fellow Charles Horner, author of Rising China and Its Postmodern Fate: Memories of Empire in a New Global Context, and Hudson Research Fellow Eric Brown, who also moderated.

Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center

1015 15th Street, NW

Sixth Floor

Washington, DC 20005