Podcast appearances and mentions of shelley rigger

In this episode of Taiwan Salon, host and GTI Research Assistant Adrienne Wu and Program Assistant Zoe Weaver-Lee interview Dr. Shelley Rigger, a GTI advisor, interim vice president for academic affairs, and the Brown Professor of Political Science at Davidson College. Addressing the strengths and limitations of using democratic values as a source of soft power, Dr. Rigger discusses how democratic values tie into the Taiwanese identity and contribute to the island's international engagement.

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This week on the Sinica Podcast, Shelley Rigger of Davidson College returns to the show to talk Taiwan. She's joined by Simona Grano, a sinologist and Taiwan specialist at the University of Zürich. They talk about President Joe Biden's recent "gaffes" that call into question the longstanding, unofficial U.S. policy of "strategic ambiguity," talk about how Taiwan has been impacted by the Ukraine War, and much more.4:59: – What did Joe Biden's latest "gaffe" on Taiwan actually signify?10:06 – Did "strategic ambiguity" serve its intended purpose?16:23 – The mood in Taiwan20:51 – The impact of the Ukraine War on thinking in Beijing and in Taipei34:12 – European countries navigating relationships with Taiwan43:54 – The "One China Principle" versus the "One China Policy"47:20 – Are bilateral trade agreements enough for Taiwan?50:27 – Ethnicity, nationality, and the Taiwan issue59:00 – Making sense of the PRC claim to TaiwanA complete transcript of this podcast is available at SupChina.com.Recommendations:Simona: Orphan of Asia, a novel by Wu Zhuoliu; and the show Orange is the New BlackShelley: Occupied, a Norwegian thriller series on NetflixKaiser: Meizhong.report, a Chinese-language resource from the Carter Center's U.S.-China Perception Monitor, covering official, media, and social media commentary on U.S.-China relationsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:   In this episode of Talking Taiwan, my guests are Richard Pearson, the Executive Director of the Western Pacific Fellowship Project and Professor Shelley Rigger. We will be talking about the Taiwan Fellowship Act, a bill which has been decades in the making, and was inspired by the Mansfield Fellowship. This bill which has gotten bipartisan support in both the U.S. and Taiwan. It has been added to the COMPETES Act, and has also passed through both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in slightly different versions. Now the House and Senate are in conference committee to resolve differences in order to come up with a final version of the bill.   Learn more about what the Taiwan Fellowship Act is, how it serves to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan ties, why you should care about it, and how you can support passage of this bill in to law.   About Richard Pearson:   Richard Pearson is Executive Director of the Western Pacific Fellowship Project and Managing Director, Taiwan Fellowship. He has roughly two decades of experience in U.S.-Asia economic relations and the political-economy of the Asia-Pacific largely in the public service sector.   Mr. Pearson's professional experience includes time as a business reporter based in Taipei and in public service focusing on the Indo-Pacific. From 2010-2014 Mr. Pearson was an Associate Director at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation during which time he originally conceived and explored the Taiwan Fellowship concept. Along with Ryan Shaffer and former AIT Director and Chairman Ambassador Raymond Burghardt, Mr. Pearson founded the Western Pacific Fellowship Project in late-2019 to operationalize the Taiwan Fellowship.   Mr. Pearson received his undergraduate degree from St. Olaf College and his graduate degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Immediately after college, he held a Fulbright scholarship to Taiwan. His essays on U.S.-Asia relations have been published in various outlets in the U.S. and East Asia including the Taipei Times and The Diplomat.   About Shelley Rigger: Shelley Rigger is the Brown Professor of East Asian Politics at Davidson College. She has a PhD in Government from Harvard University and a BA in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University. She has been a Fulbright scholar at National Taiwan University (2019), a visiting researcher at National Chengchi University in Taiwan (2005) and a visiting professor at Fudan University (2006) and Shanghai Jiaotong University (2013 & 2015). She is a non-resident fellow of the China Policy Institute at Nottingham University and a senior fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). She is also a director of The Taiwan Fund, a closed-end investment fund specializing in Taiwan-listed companies. Rigger is the author of two books on Taiwan's domestic politics, Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy (Routledge 1999) and From Opposition to Power: Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (Lynne Rienner Publishers 2001). She has published two books for general readers, Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse (2011) and The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China's Economic Rise (2021). She has published articles on Taiwan's domestic politics, the national identity issue in Taiwan-China relations and related topics. In 2019-20 she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar based in Taipei, where she worked on a study of Taiwan's contributions to the PRC's economic take-off and a study of Taiwanese youth.   Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:   The COMPETES Act and the Taiwan Fellowship Act, what they are and the background The Western Pacific Fellowship Project How the China Bill in the COMPETES Act aims to strengthen the U.S. response and monitoring of China's economic activity, and political and security moves globally How the COMPETES Act aims to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor industry How the COMPETES Act contains a bill to change the name TECRO (Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office) change to Taiwan Representative Office is a part of the Competes How the Taiwan Fellowship Act fits into the larger question of the U.S.'s response to China What the Taiwan Fellowship Act is The Mike Mansfield Fellowship Why Americans should care about getting the Taiwan Fellowship Act passed Why Taiwan matters on its own, apart from China What is the procedure for an Act to get passed and what stage the Taiwan Fellowship Act is currently at The many Taiwanese American civic groups that support the Taiwan Fellowship Act For those who'd like to support the Taiwan Fellowship Act and see it get passed in to law, now is a crucial period; they should contact their members of congress to express their support for getting it passed You can write an email to your member of congress through an automated form on FAPA's (Formosan Association of Public Affairs) website How the Mansfield Fellowship came from congress vs. the Taiwan Fellowship which has been a more grassroots effort U.S. sentiment toward Japan in the mid-1990s How Richard worked at the Mansfield Foundation and learned the value of the Mansfield Fellowship in strengthening the U.S.-Japan relationship How Richard spent time in Taiwan in 2000 and realized that there could be value in creating a fellowship program similar to the Mansfield Fellowship with Taiwan How Richard has been working on the Taiwan Fellowship Act since 2010 How now seems to be the one chance to get the Taiwan Fellowship Act passed If passed the Taiwan Fellowship could endure for decades like the Mansfield Fellowship What will happen if the Taiwan Fellowship Act doesn't get passed Reaction and support for the Taiwan Fellowship Act in Taiwan How the Taiwan Fellowship Act had gotten bipartisan support in both Taiwan (pan-Green and pan-Blue) and in the U.S. (Democrats and Republicans) How the Western Pacific Fellowship Project is a volunteer-led organization and its funding needs How there are a lot of the leading figures in US-Taiwan relations among the Western Pacific Fellowship Project's directors and advisors Shelley's support of the Taiwan Fellowship Act Why there has been such broad support for the Taiwan Fellowship Act   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/why-you-should-care-about-the-taiwan-fellowship-act-a-discussion-with-richard-pearson-and-shelley-rigger-ep-189/

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Lithuania has provoked China's rage by going too far in recognising Taiwan. Beijing is now apparently blocking Lithuanian imports and is even threatening global firms who trade with Lithuania. The spat was started by Lithuania's decision to allow a Taiwanese Representative Office to open in Vilnius in November. China says Taiwan is part of its territory. This has all come days after Brussels proposed a new law allowing it to retaliate against economic sanctions like this. Ed Butler speaks to Finbarr Bermingham, the Brussels correspondent of the South China Morning Post, Shelley Rigger from Davidson College in the US and a leading expert on Taiwan's trade relations and Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, the director of the European Centre for International Political Economy who is advising EU member states on the new legislation. (Picture: Made in Lithuania logo; Credit: Picitup/Getty Images)

How did the poor, isolated People's Republic of China become the factory to the world? Shelley Rigger argues that the origins lie in Taiwan. In her new book, The Tiger Leading the Dragon, she describes the evolution of Taiwan's influence from the period when Deng Xiaoping lifted Mao's prohibitions on business in the late 1970s, allowing investors from Taiwan to collaborate with local officials in the PRC to transform mainland China into a manufacturing powerhouse. In the late 1980s, Taiwanese business owners lowered production costs by moving across the Strait, as China sought external investment to fuel its industrial rise. The book also explores Taiwan's contributions to Chinese consumer behavior, philanthropy, religion, popular culture, and law. The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations held an event on October 26, 2021 with Shelley Rigger to discuss her new book.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Shelley Rigger, Brown professor of political science at Davidson College and author of the new book The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China's Economic Rise. Shelley recounts Taiwan's rise as an export-led powerhouse and one of the Asian Tigers, and explains the wave of Taiwanese SMEs (small and medium enterprises) that transformed China into the factory to the world. She also opens a window on world-class Taiwanese companies like Foxconn, which employs some 15 million people in China and assembles some of Apple's most iconic and consequential products, and TSMC, the world's most valuable semiconductor company, and discusses how the island's business relationship with China has complicated politics in Taiwan.4:34 - The story of Chen Tian-fu, Umbrella King of Taiwan9:27 - Explaining the psychological distance between Taiwanese and mainland Chinese19:08 - The conditions that created the Taiwan manufacturing boom33:42 - Why Taiwan manufacturing moved to the Mainland48:36 - The vulnerability of Taishang on the Chinese mainland53:03 - Moving up the value chain: Foxconn and TSMC1:07:31 - Beyond business: the impact of Taiwan on Chinese cultural life1:13:52 - Taiwan influence on Chinese institutionsA transcript of this interview is available on SupChina.comRecommendations: Shelley: Giri/Haji, a joint BBC-Japanese crime drama on Netflix.Kaiser: Jonathan Franzen's new novel, CrossroadsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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On April 30, 2021, the National Committee held a virtual program with Robert Blackwill (Council on Foreign Relations) and Philip Zelikow (University of Virginia), moderated by leading Taiwan authority Shelley Rigger (Davidson College), to discuss U.S. policy options for a productive relationship with Taiwan.

On January 9, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would eliminate self-imposed restrictions on exchanges between American and Taiwanese officials. Reactions have been mixed, with some saying a change in policy on Taiwan was overdue, while others warning that the timing of the announcement in the last days of the Trump administration means Taiwan will bear the brunt of Beijing's fury. Experts Margaret Lewis and Jessica Drun — both currently in Taipei — join NüVoices podcast host Joanna Chiu to explore this historic moment. Recommendations: Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse, by Shelley Rigger.The Legislative Intent of the Taiwan Relations Act: A Dilemma Wrapped in an Enigma, by Lester L. Wolff.Toward a stronger U.S.-Taiwan relationship, by Bonnie S. Glaser.Pompeo’s 11th hour change in Taiwan policy does Taipei no favors, by Michael J. Green, Bonnie S. Glaser, and Richard Bush.Frozen Garlic, a blog by Nathan Batto. Ghost Island Media, a Taiwan-based podcast network.

In August 2020, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II visited Taiwan, the highest level American cabinet officer to do so since the establishment of diplomatic relations with the PRC. A month later Under Secretary of State Keith Krach followed, representing the U.S. government at former President Lee Teng-hui’s funeral. What do these high-level visits suggest about the Trump administration’s policies toward Taiwan and the PRC, and about cross-strait relations? The National Committee held a virtual program with Professors Margaret K. Lewis and Shelley Rigger on October 27.

We interviewed Taiwan scholar Dr. Shelley Rigger. Rigger, who serves as the Brown Professor of Political Science at Davidson College and is a member of GTI's Advisory Board, has long been recognized as a leading expert on Taiwan's domestic politics, demography, and identity. In an informative interview, Rigger sheds light on Taiwan's shifting electoral politics, youth issues, and relationship with China. Producer: Marshall Reid, Jack Liu Host: Marshall Reid, Joseph Ross Edit: Jack Liu Music: Joseph Ross

We've been told for years that the magic money tree doesn't exist - but has the Chancellor just found it? (00:55) Now that Hong Kong has come into closer orbit with Beijing, is Taiwan next? (21:15) And finally, we find out a little about the weird and wonderful world of hotel carpets - see them here! (32:35)With The Spectator's Economics Correspondent Kate Andrews; Miatta Fahnbulleh from the New Economics Foundation; security expert Alessio Patalano; Taiwan expert Shelley Rigger; pilot and carpet connoisseur Bill Young; and journalist Sophie Haigney.Presented by Cindy Yu.Produced by Cindy Yu and Max Jeffery.Subscribe to The Spectator's first podcast newsletter here and get each week's podcast highlights in your inbox every Tuesday.

We've been told for years that the magic money tree doesn't exist - but has the Chancellor just found it? (00:55) Now that Hong Kong has come into closer orbit with Beijing, is Taiwan next? (21:15) And finally, we find out a little about the weird and wonderful world of hotel carpets - see them here (https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-weird-and-wonderful-world-of-hotel-carpets) ! (32:35) With The Spectator's Economics Correspondent Kate Andrews; Miatta Fahnbulleh from the New Economics Foundation; security expert Alessio Patalano; Taiwan expert Shelley Rigger; pilot and carpet connoisseur Bill Young; and journalist Sophie Haigney. Presented by Cindy Yu. Produced by Cindy Yu and Max Jeffery. Subscribe to The Spectator's first podcast newsletter here (https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast-highlights) and get each week's podcast highlights in your inbox every Monday.

In the wake of Tsai Ing-Wen's re-election as President of Taiwan, Gideon Rachman discusses the Asian island's future ties with China and the rest of the world with Shelley Rigger, a professor at Davidson College in the US and Taiwan expert, Ketty Chen, head of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and Professor Alexander Huang, adviser to the opposition KMT party.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Shelley Rigger shares her opinions about January's election and we talk the latest election news -- in a week packed with it.

Shelley Rigger shares her opinions about January's election and we talk the latest election news -- in a week packed with it.

This week, we feature the second half of an extensive interview (first part here) with Shelley Rigger, a political scientist at Davidson College and the leading U.S. expert on the politics of Taiwan. This second half of the interview, which covers the history of Taiwan from the 1990s to the present, was conducted by Neysun Mahboubi of the UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China Podcast (one of our favorite China podcasts), and is republished here with the Center’s permission. What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast: 3:39: Shelley and Neysun discuss the nature of the relationship between Taiwan and China in the early 1990s, with identify the opponents and proponents of unification with the mainland. Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國 Jiǎng Jīng-guó, the son of Chiang Kai-shek, who succeeded his father as premier) allowed for veterans of the Chinese civil war to return to the mainland on humanitarian visits. These veterans were accompanied by their children, who saw economic opportunities on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. Shelley: “They get off the plane, and what Dad sees is, ‘I don’t recognize my hometown.’ What the son or son-in-law sees is, ‘This is perfect for my business.’” 17:55: What is it about Taiwanese independence that makes it such a contentious topic for officials in Beijing? What has been the result of the social, economic, and cultural interactions between Taiwan and the mainland since the 1990s? What role did Taiwanese investment in China play in the ’90s, and what about Chinese investment in Taiwan in the 21st century? Shelley and Neysun, Taiwan and China scholars respectively, talk through these questions. 33:49: Are there red lines in Beijing on the topic of Taiwanese independence? What are the primary points of inflection and contention in the relationship? What effect does a U.S. presence in Taiwan have on the Taiwan-P.R.C. relationship? Shelley explains: “Are we going to remind Beijing that we are in it in that way, and that in some sense the inability to solve this problem [of independence] that they have chosen for themselves is our fault? Are we going to put that right up in their faces, or are we going to say, ‘Taiwan is okay. We’re okay. We don’t need to, as my dad says, kick the skunk.’” 38:51: What about the U.S.-Taiwan relationship under the current U.S. administration? The phone call between Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文 Cài Yīng-wén) and then president-elect Trump, which was intended to be private, certainly strained the relationship after being picked up by international media and tweets by Trump blaming Taiwan for the ensuing debacle that unfolded. Shelley: “The other thing about this administration that’s especially worrisome from the Taiwan perspective is that it’s very unpredictable, as you said, and so the possibility that Taiwan could be a bargaining chip or introduced into some transaction is ever-present…” 51:58: Taiwanese identity, and its role in the world, has undergone seismic changes throughout its history. Shelley points out that the discussion within the island nation has somewhat settled, but not without certain reservations: “The debate over identity that was raging in Taiwan in the 1990s and 2000s is pretty settled on the idea that, with the exception of the indigenous peoples and the ever-growing number of immigrants to Taiwan, our roots are in China…but that does not need to define us politically, and our community, the community of shared fate or common destiny that we belong to as Taiwanese, is specific to this island…”

This week, we feature the first half of an extensive interview with Shelley Rigger, a political scientist at Davidson College and the leading U.S. expert on the politics of Taiwan. This first half of the interview, which covers the history of Taiwan through 1996, was conducted by Neysun Mahboubi of the UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China Podcast (one of our favorite China podcasts), and is republished here with the Center’s permission. What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast:  11:05: What was Taiwan’s status in the global world order before the normalization of U.S.-China relations, and in what direction did that status shift after 1978? How did this event help shape Taiwanese identity? Shelley begins the podcast by describing the importance of the history of the island nation. 15:00: After Taiwan was handed over to the Republic of China in 1945, the Chinese civil war continued on the Chinese mainland. Because the Nationalists’ efforts were primarily focused on defending the mainland, Taiwan became a “troublesome backwater” to the larger battle being fought across the Taiwan Strait. Shelley describes this post–World War II period in Taiwan: “The Nationalists are fighting hard to save the heartland of China, and so Taiwan became a kind of ‘troublesome backwater,’ a sideshow. But for the people of Taiwan to realize they had become this kind of sideshow and that their island was supposed to be kind of a platform from which the Nationalists could prosecute this other war, and could achieve their real goal, that was kind of shocking.” 24:05: When the Nationalists fled mainland China to Taiwan in 1949, they brought with them many officials who were elected two years previously on the mainland to “repopulate the legislature.” Shelley states: “Those people, those individuals, retained their seats from 1947 to 1991 because the logic went: ‘We can’t replace these guys until we can have an election back in their home district in Hubei, or Xinjiang, or wherever, so they have to just keep their seats.’” 39:35: From the 1970s onward, there were big changes in the Taiwanese psyche for a number of reasons. Taiwan had lost its seat at the UN Security Council, and Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger had canceled a mutual defense treaty with the Republic of China. Some thought the island nation was soon to be nonexistent. Shelley argues that it was instead liberating: “It released Taiwan from the necessity to pretend to be China, and it opened the door to reimagining Taiwan in a new way. So the obligation of the Taiwanese people and even Taiwan as a physical geographical space to subjugate itself to the destiny of China is gone…”  

What explains Taiwan’s outsized presence in our news headlines, especially over the first two years of the Trump administration?  What can be learned from its raucous process of democratization over the past thirty years?  How will it continue to forge its unexpected identity, against the backdrop of China’s ever-deepening shadow?  In this episode, Davidson College political scientist Shelley Rigger, one of the foremost authorities on Taiwan’s domestic politics and international standing, discusses these questions with Neysun Mahboubi, in relaying the dramatic modern story of Taiwan, and what it reflects about shifts in global ordering over time.  The episode was recorded on March 16, 2018. Shelley Rigger is the Brown Professor of East Asian Politics, and Assistant Dean for Educational Policy, at Davidson College.  She is also a Senior Fellow with the Asia Program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, in Philadelphia.  Prof. Rigger is the author of Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse (Rowman and Littlefield, 2011), as well as two books on Taiwan’s domestic politics, Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy (Routledge 1999) and From Opposition to Power: Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (Lynne Rienner Publishers 2001).  She has also published articles on Taiwan’s domestic politics, the national identity issue in Taiwan-China relations, and related topics.  Her current research studies the effects of cross-strait economic interactions on Taiwanese people's perceptions of mainland China. Music credit: "Salt" by Poppy Ackroyd, follow her at http://poppyackroyd.com  Special thanks to Nick Marziani and Anthony Tao

This episode explores the major defeat of the ruling DPP in Taiwan’s recent nine-in-one local elections and what these results mean for the future of cross-Strait relations. Our guest, Dr. Shelley Rigger, explains the current economic and political climate in Taiwan and provides insights into the economic drivers that helped KMT candidates win 15 of Taiwan’s 22 mayoral and county magistrate seats. She also examines Beijing’s response to the election results and how it may use the DPP’s loss to its advantage. Dr. Shelley Rigger is the Brown Professor of East Asian Politics in the Department of Political Science at Davidson College. She was previously a visiting associate professor at Fudan University in Shanghai as well as a visiting research scholar at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Dr. Rigger has written extensively on Taiwan and cross-Strait relations.

This week, Kaiser sits in the guest chair and tells us about his 20-plus years of living in China. He recounts being the front man for the heavy metal band Tang Dynasty and the group's tour stops in China's backwater towns, shares his feelings on moving back to the United States with his family, and discusses the future of the Sinica Podcast. The conversation with Jeremy, Ada Shen and David Moser is one of many 'exit interview' episodes with journalists who are departing China after a long stay. It took place in June 2016, shortly after Kaiser's reentry to the U.S. Recommendations: Kaiser: The films of Sam Dunn about heavy metal. Ada: The End of a Golden Age in China-Taiwan Relations? by Shelley Rigger. When We Were Kings, a documentary about Muhammad Ali. Ralph Stanley, bluegrass musician. David: Wish Lanterns by Alec Ash. Jeremy: Overcast app for podcast listening on iPhones.

Paul Haenle talks to leading Taiwan expert Dr. Shelley Rigger about the upcoming elections in Taiwan and what the outcomes will mean for Taiwan, cross-strait relations, and US-China relations.

Shelley Rigger will discuss her new book Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011). Rigger explains how Taiwan exercises a role in the world far greater than its tiny size would indicate. The work highlights and political breakthroughs so impressive they have been called "miracles." Rigger links these accomplishments to Taiwan's determined society, vibrant culture, and unique history. Drawing on arts, economics, politics, and international relations, Rigger explores Taiwan's importance to China, the United States, and the world. Considering where Taiwan may be headed in its wary standoff with China, she traces how the focus of Taiwan's domestic politics has shifted to a Taiwan-centered strategy. Shelley Rigger is Brown Professor of Political Science at Davidson College in North Carolina. She's taught there since 1993. Rigger is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard and is one of the foremost experts on Taiwan. She's the author of Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy (1999) and From Opposition to Power: Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (2001), as well as monographs such as Taiwan's Rising Rationalism: Generations, Politics and 'Taiwanese Nationalism (2006) and many articles.

Shelley Rigger will discuss her new book Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011). Rigger explains how Taiwan exercises a role in the world far greater than its tiny size would indicate. The work highlights and political breakthroughs so impressive they have been called "miracles." Rigger links these accomplishments to Taiwan's determined society, vibrant culture, and unique history. Drawing on arts, economics, politics, and international relations, Rigger explores Taiwan's importance to China, the United States, and the world. Considering where Taiwan may be headed in its wary standoff with China, she traces how the focus of Taiwan's domestic politics has shifted to a Taiwan-centered strategy. Shelley Rigger is Brown Professor of Political Science at Davidson College in North Carolina. She's taught there since 1993. Rigger is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard and is one of the foremost experts on Taiwan. She's the author of Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy (1999) and From Opposition to Power: Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (2001), as well as monographs such as Taiwan's Rising Rationalism: Generations, Politics and 'Taiwanese Nationalism (2006) and many articles.