Taiwan’s top government official in the U.S. will speak at a free March 23 luncheon on the economic and political relations among China, Taiwan and the U.S.

Jason C. Yuan has led the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington since August 2008. 

His talk is hosted by the Center for International Strategy, Technology and Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

The speech comes one day after the first anniversary of Taiwan’s election of Ma Ying-jeou as its president. 

Mr. Ma is a Harvard Law-educated former Taipei mayor who rose to power on the promise that he would forge closer relations with the People’s Republic of China while maintaining the contested island’s sovereignty. 

China officially views Taiwan as a province. Self-ruling Taiwan has operated as the Republic of China since its founding Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist) party fled the mainland after losing to the communists in a civil war in 1949.

Under Mr. Ma, landmark tourism flights between Taipei and the mainland have started. High-level art exchanges also are being negotiated, and Taiwanese delegates have traveled to Beijing for talks with Chinese president Hu Jintao.

Mr. Yuan has represented Taiwan in Canada and Panama.  Immediately before his recent appointment, he spent four years representing the Kuomintang in the U.S.

For more information or to RSVP for the conference, contact Angela Levin at (404) 894-3199 or e-mail her at alevin@gatech.edu.

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