Debating Public Policy Series: What To Do About China? Taiwan and the Future of US/China Relations

For this Debating Public Policy Series event, the Program for Public Discourse and the Carolina Asia Center will host a dialogue between different perspectives on the best approach to U.S. relations with China, particularly regarding Taiwan. The discussion features interlocutors June Dreyer, Eric Huang, and Shelley Rigger, and is moderated by Klaus Larres.

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June Dreyer is Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami where she teaches courses on China, U.S. defense policy, and international relations. Dreyer is currently a senior fellow in the Asia Program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Formerly senior Far East specialist at the Library of Congress, Dreyer has also served as Asia policy advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations and as commissioner of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission established by the U.S. Congress. Dreyer has written extensively about the Chinese military, Asian-Pacific security issues, China-Taiwan relations and Chinese foreign policy, and her most recent book, China’s Political System: Modernization and Tradition, provides historical context and analysis of the challenges facing China in these various sectors. Dreyer holds a bachelor’s in Political Science from Wellesley College and a master’s in East Asian Studies and a doctorate in Government and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University.

Shelley Rigger is Brown Professor of Political Science at Davidson College and a senior fellow in the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Rigger has been studying and visiting Taiwan for almost four decades. She has served as a consultant for the US government on East Asian national security issues and has served as a visiting professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei and a visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. She has written for a range of publications on Taiwan’s domestic politics and the issue of national identity in Taiwan-China relations. Rigger’s current research interests include the effects of cross-strait economic interactions on Taiwanese people’s perceptions of Mainland China. Her most recent book, The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China’s Economic Rise, explores the impact of these interactions and the ways Taiwanese firms and individuals altered Chinese business practices. Rigger holds a bachelor’s in Pubic and International Affairs from Princeton University and a doctorate in Government from Harvard University.

Eric Yu-Chua Huang is the Kuomintang (KMT) ‘s representative in Washington D.C. and formerly served as the party’s spokesperson and deputy director of international affairs. Huang joined the KMT party headquarters in 2014 and served as the international spokesperson for the KMT’s presidential candidate during Taiwan’s 2016 and 2020 presidential election campaigns. He has also worked as a legislative aide for a KMT legislator representing a constituency in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei City, where his portfolio included national security and foreign relations and constituent services and youth organizing. Huang previously served as a lecturer on international affairs at Tamkang University, a visiting scholar at Fudan University, and a non-residential research fellow at National Policy Foundation. Huang graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a master’s degree in international relations; he earned his bachelor’s degree in international relations at the University of Virginia.

Klaus Larres is the Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor of History and International Affairs and director of the Krasno Global Affairs & Business Council and Krasno Global Events Series at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His focus is the global politics of the U.S., China, Germany & the European Union, and the United Kingdom. Larres recently served as a counselor and senior policy adviser at the German Embassy in Beijing, and previously served as a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a non-residential senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. His most recent book, Uncertain Allies: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Threat of a United Europe, examines the transatlantic relations during the Nixon era and the ways it informed the U.S.’ relationship with the European Union across the Bush, Obama, and Trump presidencies. Larres holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Cologne.