Hoover Delegation Meets Taiwan Vice President, Japan Defense Minister in Major Tour of Asia

More than a dozen Hoover Institution fellows and affiliated scholars from Stanford University completed a multi-city tour of Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea in September.

Participants discussed issues ranging from the future of America's Asian alliances to resilient supply chains and how to ensure peace in the Indo-Pacific with academics, elected leaders, and policymakers in each country.

The tour, which involved meetings with Taiwan's vice president and Japan's defense minister, was primarily aimed at encouraging and supporting three of America's principal allies in the Asia-Pacific region to continue hardening themselves against coercion, interference, and intimidation by China.

"Our meetings in Taiwan and Japan reinforced our sense that both countries are moving in the right direction to enhance their defenses, deterrence, and resilience in the face of rapidly mounting threats and military deployments from the PRC (People's Republic of China)," Senior Fellow Larry Diamond said of the tour's aims. "Time is of the essence in meeting this challenge, and the support and partnership of the United States is crucial to both countries and the region."

Beginning on September 7 and continuing on to September 19, Hoover fellows and scholars from Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute traveled to Taipei, Seoul, and Tokyo to speak to like-minded scholars, policymakers, military officers, and representatives of private business about matters regarding energy, semiconductors, deterring mainland China, and strengthening US ties with all three nations.

In Taipei, Distinguished Visiting Fellow Adm. James O. Ellis Jr. told an audience that included Taiwanese Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim that Hoover and America's support for Taiwan's maturing and vibrant democracy remains strong, and Taiwan should continue to chart its own path, regardless of what other nations around it do or say.

"Madam Vice President: Thirty years ago, missiles could not stop the people of this island from choosing their future. The task of our generation-yours and ours-is to make certain that nothing ever does," Ellis said.

Also while in Taiwan, the group toured a drone assembly facility in Taichung City and the Ching Chuan Kang Air Force Base, home to the Republic of China Air Force's Third Fighter Wing.

Other gatherings in Taiwan included a meeting with Wang Ting-yu, a member of the Legislative Yuan and co-convenor of Taiwan's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee; speaking engagements on democracy and resilience at the Shih Ming-te Foundation conference on September 9; and a meeting with members of Taiwanese think tank DSET (Research Institute for Democracy, Science, and Emerging Technology) and leading industry representatives to discuss the semiconductor industry on September 10.

At the Shih Ming-te Foundation conference, fellows Ellis and Marise Payne held a public discussion with Hung Mao Tien, former foreign affairs minister of Taiwan. The Hoover Library and Archives on the same day announced the acquisition of contemporary democracy activist Shih's personal papers.

Meetings in Seoul concerned the role of South Korea's economy and technological influence in the new emerging global order, something Hoover's new Commons Initiative is working to navigate.

Members of the delegation then traveled to Tokyo, where they met with senior government and business representatives, including Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's minister of defense.

Discussions with these policymakers incorporated emerging concerns in Japan about China's growing military and economic threats to the region as well as the shared challenge posed by the need to both rapidly incorporate and thoughtfully manage emerging AI technologies in the Japanese economy.

Also in Tokyo, fellows participated in a joint Hoover-International House of Japan (IHJ) day-long discussion on September 16, calling it a strategic dialogue on New Ways of War and the Frontier of Geoeconomics. The discussions included the topic of the future of Japanese defense policy, how it relates to global security, and the new geoeconomic challenge presented by the forced closure of global strategic chokepoints and other coercive behavior by shared adversaries.

Kiyoteru Tsutsui, director of the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Asia-Pacific Research Center, who jointly led the delegation in Tokyo, observed: "For Japan, there is no 'Plan B' that could replace the US-Japan alliance. With that as the guiding principle, Japan is actively trying to establish itself as an indispensable player in the regional security architecture for free and open Indo-Pacific and in global supply chains for key strategic products such as semi-conductors and defense equipment.

"Japanese leaders recognize that rising regional threats and intense technological competition make this a historic moment for deepening shared national interests and coordinating policy directions across the United States, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, and more," Tsutsui said.

Fellows who traveled to attend the gathering included Diamond, Ellis, Elizabeth Economy, Matt Pottinger, Eyck Freymann, David Fedor, Glenn Tiffert,Steven J. Davis, Marise Payne, Kharis Templeman, and Dan Kim.

For more information, please contact Jeffrey Marschner, assistant director of media and government relations, at [email protected] or (202) 760-3200.

Learn more about Hoover's Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region research initiative, the Global Policy and Strategy Initiative, and the Hoover Institution Commons Initiative.