Taiwan Matters Podcast

Could Taiwan President Tsai Ing Wen be the leader that stands up to the Central Bank of Taiwan and finally establishes a Taiwan Sovereign Wealth Fund. With nearly 500 billion US dollars in foreign reserves Taiwan could quickly become a major SWF. Three asset management experts discuss the issue on this first of a series from the American Chamber of Commerce Big Ideas Initiative. Guests include Taiwan politician and former Chairperson of the Financial Supervisory Commission and now the Chairperson of the Department of Risk Management and Insurance at National Chengchi University, Professor Jennifer Wang.   Silicon Valley angel investor, and CEO of Taiwania Capital Management Corporation, David Weng. Taiwania is a National Development Fund established by the Taiwan government just two years ago. Our third speaker was the Chairman and country head for Black Rock investment management in Taiwan, Leo Seewald. Leo is currently the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan and has been spearheading its Sovereign Wealth Fund initiative. 

Interviews with Taiwan Digital Minister Audrey Tang, and with Taiwan A.I. Labs founder Ethan Tu. Taiwan's innovative application of technology in combating the coronavirus has started to yield a economic dividend of increased direct foreign investment in the tech sector. Issues discussed include what parts of the Taiwan Model in combating Covid-19 can be replicated by other countries. A.I. Labs has developed a mobile phone application for tracking the coronavirus, practicing social distancing, and isolating confirmed cases without requiring collection of personal IDs or centralized data storage. A.I. Labs is sharing the algorithm with developers wanting to build similar apps for their countries. Taiwan's open source ethos has spawned many new startups in the precision medicine sector.     

Can Taiwan take advantage of its success in mitigating the coronavirus pandemic to better weather the coming economic storm threatening most of the world's economies, or will the failure to solve its per-existing economic conditions mean an even more severe economic hit? We hear from two Taiwan newspaper columnists writing on the economy; Managing Director, Bellwether International Group (Hong Kong), Christina Y. Liu (劉憶如); she is joined by financial market analyst, Peter Kurz (谷月涵).

Can Taiwan regain a seat a the World Health Organization. Taiwan's success battling Covid-19 and China's cover up have boosted international support for Taiwan's bid for, at the least, observer status at the next meeting of the WHO General Assembly on May 20th. Host Nicholas Gould interviews US defacto ambassador, AIT Director William Brent Christenesen; Foundation Medical Professional Alliance Taiwan CEO, Lin Shih-jia; Senior counsel Pontis Law and Global Health Scholar, Georgetown University Law Center, Liu Han Hsi. Several events are unfolded simultaneously to bring international attention to Taiwan's case. President Trump stopped US payments to the WHO while Washington investigates popssible worngdoing on the part of WHO Director General Tedros Adhoman Gherbreyesus, suspected of helping China cover up the severity of the virus outbreak in Wuhan and delaying the response of the WHO. The success Taiwan had with its quick response to preventing the virus taking hold in Taiwan has won it praise from political leaders and major media editorials on an unprecendented scale lifting its international profile. On March 16th President Trump signed into law the TAIPEI Act which requires Washington to support Taiwan's diplomatic alliances. The next day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged US support for Taiwan's participation in the WHO. Leading up the May 20th assembly both China and Taiwan are engaged in "face-mask" diplomacy as each is making donations of much needed medical equipment. Included as a bonus is the song WHO by the Taiwan rap artist Dawgei.