Media Inquiries: Véronique Rodman
         vrodman@aei.org or 202.862.4871

                For more information: Laura Conniff
          lconniff@aei.org or 202.862.5945

WASHINGTON, D.C.  March 21, 2008

Tomorrow's landmark presidential election in Taiwan and November's historic American presidential election offer a unique opportunity to open a new chapter in the U.S.-Taiwan relationship. With a view towards capitalizing on these two changes of government, the Taiwan Policy Working Group releases a groundbreaking new report, "Strengthening Freedom in Asia: A Twenty-First Century Agenda for U.S.-Taiwan Partnership." After years of troubled relations between Washington and Taipei, the report offers a new, pragmatic roadmap for putting U.S.-Taiwan relations back on a positive track and is designed to repair a relationship that has been a critical keystone of U.S. strategy in Asia for the past fifty years.

The Taiwan Policy Working Group (cosponsored by AEI and Armitage International) was first convened in January 2007 to discuss the status of changing U.S.-Taiwan political, military, and economic relations. As China's growing power and influence has brought it to the forefront of every major U.S. foreign policy challenge, U.S.-Taiwan relations have been allowed to deteriorate to a point that is not in America's, Taiwan's, or the region's interest. Codirected by AEI resident fellow Dan Blumenthal and Randall Schriver, founding partner of Armitage International, the report identifies areas for enhanced bilateral and regional cooperation and for strengthening interests between Taiwan, its neighbors, and the United States. In particular, the report advocates unilateral and bilateral recommendations for both Taiwan and the United States, including:

• the liberalization of current constraints on high-level communication
• the promotion of a joint "freedom agenda" in Asia
• the formulation of a joint U.S.-Taiwan defense agenda
• the improvement of economic cooperation, in the form of a free trade agreement

For a PDF copy of the report (in either English or Chinese), which includes a list of task-force members, please visit www.aei.org/publication27559. 

Please click on the following links for information on two events organized to preview the task force's report, one at February 22 and the other in Taiwan on February 25, 2008.

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