At PCFR, Taiwan diplomat to look at East Asian scene

Dragon boat in the annual Taiwan Dragon Boat Festival on the Blackstone River.

Taiwan Diplomat to Discuss East Asian Trade and Security Issues

The last dinner of the current season of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (founded in 1928)  is scheduled for Tuesday, June 4, here at The Hope Club. The new season will open in September.

Please consult its Web site -- thepcfr.org -- and/or send queries to pcfremail@gmail.com for more information about the PCFR, including on how to join.

On June 4, Douglas Hsu, a senior diplomat who currently oversees Taiwan’s interests in New England as director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston, will speak about current political and economic conditions in that nation (one of Rhode Island’s largest export markets), China’s military and other threats to Taiwan and the East Asian scene in general.

(Taiwan sponsors the annual Dragon Boat races on the Blackstone River and indeed just gave six of them to the City of Pawtucket!)

Mr. Hsu, who previously served two stints in Washington, may have some perspectives on the China-U.S. trade war.  His work in Washington included being Taiwan’s liaison with Congress. (Meanwhile, a reminder that the official name of Taiwan is the Republic of China.)

Mr. Hsu has served in multiple positions in Taiwan’s Department of North American Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, beginning as a desk officer in 1998. He was  the department’s Deputy Director-General  from 2016 to 2018, when he assigned to Boston.

The director general (effectively the consul general for New England) earned a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from National Cheng-Chi University and has participated in the Diplomats Training Program at Oxford University (1998) and the Senior Executive Fellows Program at Harvard University (2009).