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Asia-2021/01/29 Anderson Court ASIA-2021/01/29 1 THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION WEBINAR THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY IN ASIA Washington, D.C. Friday, January 29, 2021 PARTICIPANTS: Welcome: JOHN R. ALLEN President The Brookings Institution Introduction: RYAN HASS, Moderator Senior Fellow, Michael H. Armacost Chair, and Interim Chen-Fu and Cecelia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, John L. Thornton China Center and Center for East Asia Policy Studies The Brookings Institution Keynote: AUDREY TANG Digital Minister of Taiwan Panelists: RICHARD BUSH Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for East Asia Policy Studies The Brookings Institution JOHN LEE Senior Fellow Hudson Institute ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 600 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 ASIA-2021/01/29 2 PARTICIPANTS (CONT’D): MAIKO ICHIHARA Associate Professor, Graduate School of Law Hitotsubashi University, Japan Visiting Scholar The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace MIREYA SOLIS Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies Senior Fellow and Director, Center for East Asia Policy Studies The Brookings Institution * * * * * ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 600 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 ASIA-2021/01/29 3 P R O C E E D I N G S GENERAL ALLEN: Good morning, everyone. Good afternoon and good evening to our dear friends who are joining us from overseas. My name is John Allen, and I’m the president of the Brookings Institution located in Washington, D.C. And it’s a great pleasure to welcome you today to our discussion which culminates a year-long project at Brookings that was launched to explore the future of democracy in Asia. Our Foreign Policy program has recently published 11 excellent papers, all of which I encourage you to explore online at our website. Written both by Brookings scholars, as well as external experts from across the Indo-Pacific region, these papers aim to provide U.S. policymakers and the public in general with a clearer understanding of the strains and the stresses facing Asian democracies, as well as the steps the U.S. and regional partners can take to reinforce democratic governance in the region. While always crucial, the defense of democracy and strengthening of global systems of democracy is one of the most urgent tasks U.S. policymakers are facing at the moment. Indeed, we were reminded, the United States, of that crucial truth just this past month. On January 6th, the United States survived a grievous assault on its own democracy. We learned a great deal in America over this, about the strength of our Constitution, but about the fragility or indeed, any democratic fragility that underwrites a republic. Meaning, you can have the documents that establishes the law, but in the end, in a democracy, the institutions of democracy rely on the strength of individual leaders to adhere to the rule of law. That was a hard, relearned lesson for us. Now, these events, or more aptly these inflection points were also a reminder that the challenge of strengthening the global community of democracies and repairing American democracy at home must go hand in hand. As the United States seeks to reinforce the global democratic system, it will have to do so with humility and introspection. It will need to listen and to learn just as much as we need to lead on the democratic stage around the world. This is why this initiative, which we’re discussing today, which looks at the future of democracy in Asia is so important. As Brookings’ David M. Rubenstein Fellow, Lindsey Ford, and ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 600 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 ASIA-2021/01/29 4 Brookings Senior Fellow, Ryan Hass, wrote in their contribution to the series, “The task of reinforcing the resilience of global democracies is not a western project.” And we truly believe that at Brookings. This is not about the West. That’s an exclusive term. This is about the global community of democracies, and Asian democracies, who are on the frontlines of the competition between authoritarian and democratic global governance. So as the papers we’re going to discuss today make clear, the challenges they are facing and the obstacles they have to overcome can provide powerful lessons for democratic governments elsewhere in the world. That’s one of the reasons we’re so honored today to have Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s digital minister, join us here to offer the keynote remarks for today’s event. It’s particularly fitting that Minister Tang joins us today as it was my visit to Taiwan in 2019 that provided the very inspiration for this project. Truly, my time in Taipei was a vivid reminder, not only of Taiwan’s remarkable transition into a thriving democracy, but also of the resilience and the innovation that Taiwan has shown in the face of tremendous pressure. There is much for the democratic governments of the world to learn from Taiwan’s example. Today’s discussion marks just the first step in what will be a longer Brookings initiative looking at democratic resilience, not only in Asia but more broadly throughout the community of democracies. And I’m so pleased that we’re able to kick off this work with an excellent series of papers that we’ll be discussing today. So as a quick reminder, we’re very much live and we’re on the record. Should viewers like to submit questions, they are most welcome. And you can send them to us via email at [email protected]. That’s [email protected] or via Twitter at #DemocracyinAsia. So with that I’d like to turn over the program today to our moderator, Ryan Hass, who will introduce the minister, Minister Tang, and the rest of the guests. And Minister, it is a wonderful honor for us to have you with us. So Ryan, the floor is yours, sir. Take it away. MR. HASS: Thank you very much, John. I appreciate you being with us and leading us ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 600 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 ASIA-2021/01/29 5 forward in this initiative. It’s great to have your support and your active involvement in it. We have prerecorded our presentation with Minister Tang, and I think we’re ready to air it now. (Recording begins) Hello, my name is Ryan Hass. I’m a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and today it is my honor to have the opportunity to welcome Taiwan’s digital minister, Audrey Tang, to our virtual stage to deliver a keynote address for this event. Minister Tang is one of the leading thinkers in the world on how to adapt democracy to our changing times. And Minister Tang is not just a thinker but also a doer. As digital minister, Minister Tang is in charge of helping develop government strategies for communicating more directly with the public. Minister Tang is at the leading edge of a radical form of government transparency that has earned plaudits around the world. Minister Tang has worked at the frontlines of countering disinformation. Minister Tang also has harnessed technology to ensure better two-way communication between leaders and the public, helping to make sure that a government by the people works for the people. I could go on speaking about Minister Tang’s accomplishments for some time but I will stop here. Minister Tang, welcome to Brookings. The floor is yours. MR. TANG: Hello, I’m Audrey Tang, digital minister in charge of social innovation. I’m really happy to be here virtually to share some thoughts around not working for the people but with the people as I’m a minister working with the government, not for the government. In Taiwan, we countered the pandemic with no lockdown and the infodemic associated with it with no takedowns. And the reason why we could do that is through digital social innovation, meaning it’s everyone’s business and with everybody’s help. Now, in the beginning of this particular pandemic we played a SARS playbook because on the PTT or the Taiwanese equivalent of Reddit in 2019 December 31, there was a young doctor with the nickname “Nomar Pipe” (phonetic) reposting Dr. Li Wenliang’s message from Wuhan. It said, and I quote, “There’s seven new SARS cases.” ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 600 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 ASIA-2021/01/29 6 Now, Dr. Li Wenliang’s message did not reach the Wuhan citizens until much later, but he literally saved the Taiwanese people because people started to triage the message on the PTT operating with their expertise and all this reached the medical office at the Center for Disease Control within hours. And then the very next day, starting January 1, 2020, we started health inspections for all flights coming in from Wuhan and set up the Central Epidemic Command Center even before we had the first local case. Now, the PTT isn’t exactly equivalent to Reddit. PTT is part of our social sector. Its funding is by the National Taiwan University. Its maintenance is entirely kind of self-governed by its participants. The source code is open source is on GitHub and all its operation and so on are serving primarily the people of Taiwan instead of the advertisers or any particular shareholders. PTT doesn’t really have a shareholder board. Now, the importance of such digital public infrastructure is most salient when we see like Dr.
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