“One China” Contention and Taiwan’s Future

Beijing and Taipei have long disputed ideas of “one China.” The nature of their contentions has also varied across time. What is certain now is that a majority of Taiwanese disagree with any “one China” concept that implies Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China. Most people in Taiwan want to remain a self-governing liberal democracy and reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” policy. Our speaker, Yu-Jie Chen, an assistant research professor at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica and an affiliated scholar of U.S.-Asia Law Institute of NYU School of Law, spoke about the diversified political positions on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese attitudes towards their own identity, and whether a peaceful solution can be found to this increasingly volatile and high-stakes dispute.

Yu-Jie Chen is an assistant research professor at the Law Institute of Taiwan’s Academia Sinica. Her research focuses on human rights and international law and relations, particularly in the context of China, Taiwan, and China-Taiwan relations. Professor Chen received her J.S.D. and LL.M. degrees from New York University School of Law. She also holds an LL.M. and LL.B. from National Chengchi University in Taiwan. She was an inaugural Global Academic Fellow at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law (2019-2020). She has been a research scholar at the US-Asia Law Institute, a researcher and advocate for the non-governmental organization Human Rights in China, and an attorney at the Taipei-based international law firm Lee and Li.

Sponsored by Asian Institute and Global Taiwan Studies Program.