Asia Week 2007:The Democratic Culture of Taiwan

Guest Speakers

Wen-Chen Chang - "Vincent" Wen-hsien Chen - June Tuefel Dreyer
Ed Friedman - Jolan Hsieh - Bruce Jacobs - Scott Simon

At the end of the World War II as the Kuomintang (KMT) army began arriving from China, Dr. Peng returned to Taiwan in October 1945.  Dr. Peng witnessed the KMT’s brutal month-long massacre which began on February 28, 1947.  The looting and violence perpetrated by the KMT left a lasting impression on Dr. Peng and many Taiwanese.  Subsequent decades of political oppression during the “White Terror” era of the 1950’s and 1960’s had subjected the Taiwanese living in fear.  After completing his bachelor’s degree at the Law School, the National Taiwan University, Dr. Peng went on to pursue a Master’s degree at the Institute of International Air Law at the McGill University in Canada, later a doctoral degree in law at the University of Paris in 1954.  During his studies, Dr. Peng wrote some of the first essays on international air law published in France, Canada and Japan.  His publications attracted considerable international attention and distinguished Dr. Peng as a pioneer in the new field of international air law.

Upon his return to Taiwan, Dr. Peng embarked on a brilliant academic and public career.  In 1957, at age 34 Dr. Peng became the youngest full professor at the National Taiwan University during the post-war period.  While Dr. Peng was a professor and chairman of the Department of Political Science from 1961 to 1962, he attracted the attention of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and other KMT leaders.  Chiang appointed Dr. Peng as the advisor to Taiwan’s delegation to the United Nations, then the highest political position held by any Taiwanese, and hinted of future high-level governmental appointments.

Dr. Peng’s appointment came at a time when the KMT government representation of China in the United Nations was losing international legitimacy due to KMT’s opposition to Mongolia’s admission into the U.N.  To this day, the KMT government still claims territorial sovereignty over Mongolia despite the fact that Mongolia voted for independence in a 1945 Plebiscite.  Sensing that the Nationalist government faced imminent expulsion from the UN and that the interests of the Taiwan people would be sacrificed, Dr. Peng’s opposition to the KMT government grew.  In July 1962, he wrote an article, entitled “The Sentimental Basis for Pan-Africanism, “which discussed the African emergence from colonialism and its struggle to attain independence, identity, and nationhood.  Many local observers recognized his work as an allegory to the situation in Taiwan.

In 1964, Dr. Peng and his students issued “A Manifesto to Save Taiwan” with three objectives: To affirm that recovering Mainland China is absolutely impossible; To rewrite the constitution to guarantee human right and genuine democracy; To participate in the UN as a new member and to establish diplomatic relations with other countries working together for world peace.  While revolutionary at the time, many of the proposals in the Manifesto have become government policy today, leading many observers to hail Dr. Peng as the “Father of Democracy and Independence” in Taiwan.

Before the Manifesto could be distributed, Dr. Peng and his students were arrested.  Dr. Peng was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment by a military court.  His case attracted worldwide attention prompting Amnesty International, Professor John K. Fairbank, Dr. Henry Kissinger and many others to express their concern to the KMT regime.  Bowing to the increasing international pressure, Chiang Kai-shek released Dr. Peng from military prison 14 months later, but placed him under house arrest for life with strict surveillance.

In January 1970, Dr. Peng dramatically escaped to Sweden where he was granted political asylum.  Despite strenuous objections from the KMT government, the United States granted Dr. Peng a visa and he arrived in Michigan in August 1970.  During his two decades of exile Dr. Peng had lectured at the University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and the University of London.  In 1972 in addition to serve as Director of Formosan Studies in New Jersey, Dr. Peng also published a personal memoir entitled A Taste of Freedom which was later translated into Chinese.  His book has become a major source of hope and inspiration for many Taiwanese around the world.

During his time in the United States, Dr. Peng continued to be a leading figure in Taiwan politics and American foreign policy issues.  In 1981, he co-founded the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA’S), a Taiwanese lobbying organization based in Washington D.C.  Dr. Peng served as FAPA’s president from 1986 to 1988 and chaired the Asia-Pacific Democracy Association in 1989.  He also testified on Taiwan issues before the US Congress on several occasions.

In 1990, Dr. Peng was invited to attend the National Affairs Conference in Taiwan in which scholars and politicians from all political factions sat down for the first time to discuss future policies for Taiwan.  However, Dr. Peng refused the invitation because there was still a warrant outstanding for his arrest in Taiwan.  When President Lee Teng-hui finally granted a general amnesty for political offenders in 1992, Dr. Peng made immediate plans to return to Taiwan.  After 23 years of exile abroad, Dr. Peng returned to Taiwan on November 1, 1992.

In 1994, Dr. Peng established the Peng Foundation for Culture and Education which sponsored seminars and lectures to raise awareness about Taiwan identity.  On September 28, 1995, after an arduous two-tiered nomination process involving 49 public debates around Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party nominated Dr. Peng as the candidate for Taiwan’s first presidential elections in March 1996.  In sharp contrast to other presidential candidates, Dr. Peng is committed to implementing genuine democracy, guaranteeing fundamental human rights, and protecting Taiwan’s current independent sovereignty.  Dr. Peng’s vision and direction was and still is much needed during the time of Taiwan’s historic and difficult transition.

After the election, Dr. Peng formed The Nation-Building Union of Taiwan and has served as its president.  On May 20, 2000, when the people of Taiwan finally elected the nation’s president from the opposition party (DDP) for the first time since KMT control, Dr. Peng became Senior Adviser to President Shui-bian Chen.

Since then, he was invited to participate in the 5th Forum 2000 Conference hosted by the President Vaclav Have of the Czech Republic.  He was also twice the chief delegate of Taiwan to the “National Prayer Breakfast” hosted by the President of the U.S.A.  Since 2000, he also serves as the Secretary General of the Asian Pacific League for Freedom and Democracy (APLFD).

Edward Friedman is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was a graduate student living at Taiwan University in 1964, 1965 and 1966. He has been publishing research on Taiwan foreign policy since the 1970 book "Taiwan and American Policy." His most recent book on Taiwan is, "China's Rise, Taiwan's Dilemmas, and International Policy." In 1981, 1982 and 1983 while on the staff of the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, he wrote the law that restored an immigration quota for Taiwan that was lost in the January 1, 1980 normalization agreement between the USA and PRC. In that staff position he organized the first congressional hearings on human rights abuses in Taiwan and worked continuously on behalf of the Kaohsiung Incident prisoners. In 1969 he wrote a paper on finessing the Taiwan issue in preparation for Nixon's first visit to China. He is finishing an article on European policies toward the CCP regime's one-China principle.

June Teufel Dreyer is Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. Dr. Dreyer is a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a member of the Board of Scholars of the US-China Research Institute of the University of Southern California. She served three terms as Commissioner of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission (www.uscc.gov ), having been appointed by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.  Dr. Dreyer received her Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. She formerly served as Senior Far East Specialist at the Library of Congress and Asia advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations. Her research work centers on ethnic minorities; the Chinese military; Asian-Pacific regional relations; cross-strait relations; and Sino-Japanese relations. A frequent visitor to the Far East, Dr Dreyer is sole author of China’s Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People’s Republic of China, published by Harvard University Press, and China’s Political System: Modernization and Tradition, published by Longman. Its sixth edition is now in preparation. Her current project is a book on Sino-Japanese relations.  Her articles have appeared in numerous scholarly journals. She is also co-author and/or editor of numerous other books, including the 2005 Report to Congress of the United States Economic and Security Commission.  Dr. Dreyer has recently lectured at Oxford University, the Royal Institute of Strategic Studies in London, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the Sorbonne, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fűr Auswartige Politik in Berlin, among other venues. She has also testified at numerous U.S. congressional hearings.  She serves on the board of editors of Orbis and the Journal of Contemporary China, and has received numerous teaching awards.

Wen-Chen Chang is now a full time assistant professor at College of Law, National Taiwan University. She received her J.S.D. degree from Yale Law School, U.S.A. Her research interests lie mainly in constitutional law and constitutional theories, democratization and comparative constitutionalism. She teaches courses on Constitutional Law, American Constitutional Law, Comparative Constitutionalism and International Human Rights.

Dr. Vincent Wen-Hsien Chen is a professor of the Graduate Institute of Taiwan History at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Dr. Chen received his doctoral degree in Political Science from the University of Florida in Gainesville. He had worked for the Institute for International Relations in Taipei as a researcher for 12 years. He was a residence scholar at the Pacific Forum/CSIS in Honolulu in 1995 and was also a visiting fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in New Delhi, India for three months in 2002. Dr. Chen’s research mainly covers Asian security issues in general and trilateral relations between Taiwan, the U.S. and China in particular. He has published a number of articles on those subjects in various journals such as Issues & Studies and Wenti Yu Yanjiu (Issues and Studies).

Jolan Hsieh is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Indigenous Cultures and Institute of Ethnic Relations and Culture at College of Indigenous Studies, National Dong Hwa University. She earned her Ph.D. (2002) in Justice Studies (Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Social Science, in year 2005 renamed to Justice and Social Inquiry, moved from the College of Public Programs to the College of Library Arts) and M.S. (1996) in Justice Studies from Arizona State University (USA). Her undergraduate degrees were B.S. in Women's Studies(1993, ASU) and B.A. in Social Work from Tainan Theological College and Seminary (1991). As a Taiwanese Siraya-PingPu Indigenous scholar and activist, she advocates her knowledge in the field of social (in)justice and human rights. Throughout her academic and professional experiences, she has focused on research and examines social (in)justice linked to gender and race/ethnicity. Jolan's research interest areas are Justice Theories, Law and Society, Human Rights, Gender/Ethnic/Class, Collective Identity and Social Movement, Indigenous Peoples' Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights, PingPu / Siraya Studies, Critical Race and Legal Studies. Her new book, Collective Rights of Indigenous Peoples - Identity-Based Movement of Plain Indigenous in Taiwan, just been published with Routledge in March 2006.  Jolan currently serves as co-Chair of Green Party Taiwan, Member of the Board of Directors of the Taiwan International Studies Association and Executive Editor of its official journal (Taiwan International Studies Quarterly), Higher Education Committee Member of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, Multicultural Committee Board Council Member of Taiwan Public Television Service, Standing Member of Board of Directors of Taiwan Environmental Action Network, and Member of Board of Directors of Mackay Medicine, Nursing and Management College.

Bruce Jacobs is Professor of Asian Languages and Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University with a major in political science and a minor in Chinese. In 1965, he made his first trip to Taiwan where he studied for a year as a postgraduate student in history at National Taiwan University . He returned to Taiwan in 1971-1973 where he conducted doctoral field research about local politics in rural Taiwan. After obtaining his PhD from Columbia University in 1975, Jacobs migrated to Australia in 1976 and visited Taiwan annually from 1976 to 1980, until he was blacklisted for twelve years. He returned to Taiwan in 1992 and has been a frequent visitor since that time. In addition, Jacobs has also lived and conducted field research in China.