May 9, 2000
Influential journalist to speak May 16 on Taiwan and China at crossroads
Just days before Taiwan inaugurates its new president and Congress votes on China trade, one of Asia’s leading journalists will come to the University of Washington to discuss the impact of these dramatic events on U.S.-China-Taiwan relations.
Frank Ching, senior editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, will lecture May 16 about Taiwan’s recent groundbreaking presidential election and its ramifications.
The independence-minded new Taiwanese leader, Chen Shui-bien, takes office May 20, the week before the U.S. Congress is scheduled to vote on permanant normal trade relations with China.
Ching is the UW’s inaugural Severyns-Ravenholt Lecturer. The endowed lectureship honors the late Margorie Severyns Ravenholt, a UW political science graduate who served as a foreign correspondent for Life and other publications in Asia. Her husband Albert Ravenholt also was a journalist in Asia.
“This couple chronicled and participated in the development of Asian countries that are now home to two-thirds of humanity,” said Susan Whiting, assistant professor of political science. “The goal of the lectureship is to promote awareness of contemporary Asian politics, economies and cultures.”
Ching writes a weekly “Eye on Asia” column and was Beijing correspondent for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
His May 16 talk, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. in Kane Hall 210, and will be followed by a reception in the Walker Ames Room.
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For information, contact Whiting at (206) 543-9163 or swhiting@u.washington.edu.
