In his opening address to the 17th Party Congress this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao called for negotiations with Taiwan to peacefully resolve the 50-year stand-off across the straights. The Taiwanese government and both major political parties rejected the offer, reasserting that any discussion predicated on the "one China principle" is unacceptable. This offer came after a summer of heightened tensions, which stemmed from the Taiwanese government's decision to hold a referendum on applying for UN membership as "Taiwan." The current situation has placed the United States in a difficult position – should it accommodate the wishes of a quickly rising power in East Asia or support an old, but increasingly challenging, relationship? How should U.S. policy balance support for democratic governance with the difficulties of regional power politics?

To discuss these and other questions surrounding the U.S.-Taiwan relationship and its impact on U.S.-China relations, we are pleased to have Richard Bush, Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at The Brookings Institution.  The discussion will be held from 6:30 – 8:00 pm on Wednesday, October 24th. To attend, please register by responding to ypfp.programming@gmail.com.

Updated YPFP RSVP Policies
With YPFP's Washington D.C. branch now over 1,000 members strong, space at our events is becoming increasingly limited. As a result, we are implementing new policies on attendance. RSVPs for events will be accepted no later than 5:00pm the day prior to the event. Additionally, we ask that members who are unable to attend notify us by 5:00pm the day before the event. Members who RSVP but do not attend will be tracked and may be penalized if this becomes a chronic problem.

Guests will not be guaranteed a spot at our events unless specifically noted. Members who request a guest and provide us with a name, affiliation, and e-mail will have the guest placed on a the wait list. Guests will be admitted from this list as space permits and at the discretion of the event organizer. Admitted guests admitted will be contacted directly.

Thank you for your understanding and patience in our efforts to allow you and other members the best opportunity to participate in our events.

Richard Bush
Richard Bush is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Director of its Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies. CNAPS is a center for research, analysis, and debate to enhance policy development on the pressing political, economic, and security issues facing Northeast Asia and U.S. interests in the region. Richard Bush came to Brookings in July 2002, after serving almost five years as the Chairman and Managing Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the mechanism through which the United States Government conducts substantive relations with Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic relations. Richard Bush began his professional career in 1977 with the China Council of The Asia Society. In July 1983 he became a staff consultant on the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs. In January 1993 he moved up to the full committee, where he worked on Asia issues and served as liaison with Democratic Members. In July 1995, he became National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and a member of the National Intelligence Council, which coordinates the analytic work of the intelligence community. He left the NIC in September 1997 to become head of AIT. Richard Bush received his undergraduate education at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. He did his graduate work in political science at Columbia University, getting an M.A. in 1973 and his Ph.D. in 1978. He is author of a number of articles on U.S. relations with China and Taiwan; of At Cross Purposes, a book of essays on the history of America's relations with Taiwan published in March 2004 by M.E. Sharpe; and of Untying the Knot, a book on cross-Strait political relations published by the Brookings Institution Press in July 2005. Dr. Bush's latest book, A War Like No Other: The Truth About China's Challenge to America (Wiley, 2007), is co-written with Brookings scholar Michael O'Hanlon and examines the challenges that the United States faces in avoiding conflict and developing its relationship with China. He is currently working on a book examining structural factors in the U.S.-Japan-China trilateral relationship.