The recent reversal of fortunes for democracy movements in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong and Myanmar, stands in contrast to an earlier highly successful campaign for political liberalization in Taiwan. The ongoing democratic crisis in the region warrants a closer comparison of these three movements, and what parallels and differences may be found. The role of young activists and use of media as a tool of mobilization seem to hold across cases but the geopolitical context has dramatically changed with the rise of China and its increasingly assertive behavior. How do democratic prospects look?

To delve into these questions, the Sigur Center’s recent Taiwan Roundtable featured a panel of leading experts including Michael Hsiao, Chairman of the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, Kharis Templeman, Program Manager of Stanford University’s Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific, Christina Fink, Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University, and Shirley Lin, Compton Visiting Professor in World Politics at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Read the full Asia Report here.