Stanford University

NHI Reform in Taiwan: Recent Developments

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Co-sponsored by the Center of East Asian Studies, Stanford University

Prominent health policy expert—Rachel Lu from Taiwan—will share her view on recent health policy developments in the region, drawing on her extensive research and policy background.

Jui-fen Rachel Lu, Sc.D., is a Professor in the Department of Health Care Management, at Chang Gung University (CGU) in Taiwan, where she teaches comparative health systems, health economics, and health care financing and has served as department chair (2000-2004), Associate Dean (2009-2010) and Dean of College of Management (2010-2013).  She earned her B.S. from National Taiwan University, and her M.S. and Sc.D. from Harvard University, and she was also a Takemi Fellow at Harvard (2004-2005) and is an Honorary Professor at Hong Kong University (2007-2014), a guest professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (2010-2013), and an adjunct professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University (2011-2014) in China.  Her devotion to teaching driven by her firm belief in the value of education and investment in human minds was recognized by the Award of Excellence in Teaching conferred by CGU in both 2002 and 2013.

Her research focuses on 1) the equity issues of the health care system; 2) impact of the NHI program on health care market and household consumption patterns; 3) comparative health systems in Asia-Pacific region.  She is a long-time and active member of Equitap (Equity in Asia-Pacific Health Systems) research network and is currently the coordinator for the catastrophic payment component of Equitap II research project which involves 21 country teams and is jointly funded by IDRC, AusAID, and ADB.  Professor Lu has also been appointed to serve as a member on various government committees dealing with health care issues in Taiwan, such as National Health Insurance Supervisory Committee (DOH), Hospital Management Committee(DOH), and Hospital Global Budget Payment Committee (BNHI), etc.  Dr. Lu received the Minister Wang Jin Naw Memorial Award for Best Paper in Health Care Management presented by Kimma Chang Foundation in 2002 and was the recipient of IBM Faculty Award in 2009.  She has published papers in Health Affairs, Medical Care, Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics, Social Science and Medicine, Health Economics, Policy and Law, Osteoporosis International, Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, and Taiwan Economic Review etc, and is the author of “Health Economics”(a textbook in Chinese) and various book chapters.  

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Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall 3rd Floor Central
616 Serra Street, CA 94305

Jui-fen Rachel Lu Professor in the Department of Health Care Management Speaker Chang Gung University in Taiwan
Seminars

Jean-Marc Blanchard

Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 723-9741 (650) 723-6530
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Visiting Professor
Blanchard-picture-2012-09-24).jpg PhD

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard (白永辉) joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) from July-October 2013 from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) where he serves as Professor, Assistant Dean for International Cooperation and Exchange, and Executive Director of the SJTU SIPA Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations.

His research interests include Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI), inward FDI into China, Chinese foreign economic policy, Chinese foreign energy policy, multinational corporations, and economic globalization.  During his time at Shorenstein APARC, he will conduct research on the politico-economy of Chinese OFDI.

Blanchard is a co-author of Economic Statecraft and Foreign Policy (2013), a co-editor of and contributor to Governance, Domestic Change and Social Policy in China (forthcoming 2013); “China and Soft Power” (Asian Perspective special issue, 2012); New Thinking about The Taiwan Issue (2012), Multidimensional Diplomacy of Contemporary China (2010), Harmonious World and China’s New Foreign Policy (2008), and Power and the Purse (2000), and the author of more than three dozen refereed journal articles and book chapters.

Blanchard is former Associate Editor of the Journal of Chinese Political Studies (JCPS), a member of the Editorial Board for the JCPS, and a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.  He previously served as President of the Association of Chinese Political Studies (2010-2012).

Blanchard received his PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania and AB in economics from U.C. Berkeley.  Prior to his career in academia, Blanchard worked for the U.S. government Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corporation and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and for the investment banking firm Kelling, Northcross, & Nobriga.

Peigang Li

Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 736-0771 (650) 862-9660 (650) 723-6530
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Visiting Scholar
LI,_Peigang_1_3x4.jpg

Peigang Li joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC)  as a visiting scholar for the 2013-2014 acedemic year. He is currently an Investment Portfolio Manager for Hollyhigh International Capital, the first investment banking firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in Mainland China.   

His research interests include studying China‘s economic development and other areas of economic history in East Asian countries. During his time at Shorenstein APARC, Peigang will participate in a research project with the Stanford China Program, where he will evaluate China’s economic situation, and assess its future development for sustainability through institutional change. 

Peigang received a Masters in Power Electric Automation Control from the Northeast China Institute of Electric Power Engineering. After working as a power automation software engineer, his interests in the financial community led him to enter into the investment field. Peigang soon became an industry stock analyst, and a mutual fund manager.

Charlotte Lee

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Associate Director, China Program
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Charlotte Lee was the associate director of the China Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Prior to that she was an assistant professor in the Department of Government at Hamilton College. From 2012-14, she was Minerva Chair in the Department of Political Science at the U.S. Air Force Academy. As Minerva Chair, she conducted research and briefings on issues in U.S.-China relations. In 2013, she was a visiting assistant professor at Stanford’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

Her research on China has been published in peer-reviewed journals. She recently completed a book manuscript on reforms taking place in the Chinese Communist Party entitled Training the Party: Party Adaptation and Elite Training in Reform-Era China (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press).

She has taught classes on Chinese politics, international relations, geopolitics and comparative politics. She holds a doctorate and master’s degree in political science from Stanford, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Her bachelor’s degree is in Asian studies and political economy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kharis Templeman, Ph.D.

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Kharis Templeman is the former project manager of the Taiwan Democracy and Security Project in the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC). He currently serves as advisor to the Taiwan Democracy and Security Project. A fluent Mandarin speaker, he has lived, worked and traveled extensively in both Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China.

His research includes projects on party system institutionalization and partisan realignments, electoral integrity and manipulation in East Asia, the politics of defense spending in Taiwan, and the representation of Taiwan’s indigenous minorities. His most recent publication is “The China Model: How Successful Is the Chinese Regime?” a review essay in the Taiwan Journal of Democracy. He is also the editor (with Larry Diamond and Yun-han Chu) of Taiwan’s Democracy Challenged: The Chen Shui-bian Years (2016, Lynne Rienner Publishing). Other work has appeared in Comparative Political Studies and the APSA Comparative Democratization Newsletter.

Dr. Templeman currently serves as coordinator of the American Political Science Association Conference Group on Taiwan Studies (CGOTS) and as a regional manager for the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. He holds a BA (2003) from the University of Rochester and a PhD (2012) in political science from the University of Michigan.

Former Project Manager, Taiwan Democracy and Security Project
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PRC-ROK summit underscores shared interests and common concerns

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PRC-ROK Summit Underscores Shared Interests and Common Concerns
 
 
Stanford, California
 
South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s visit to China this week attests to the magnitude and importance of geostrategic changes in Northeast Asia.  Just a few years ago, such a visit might have been widely interpreted as a sign of tension in the U.S.-ROK relationship and an attempt by Beijing to undermine the alliance.  Now it is viewed, correctly, as a natural and necessary meeting between leaders with many shared interests and common concerns, above all about the behavior and intentions of the DPRK.
 
When Presidents Park and Xi Jinping meet, each will have met recently with President Obama.  Neither will have met with Kim Jong Un since assuming their current positions.  The symbolism of this difference reflects the reality that Park, Xi, and Obama have far more shared interests than any of them has with Kim or his regime.  Indeed, key objectives of all three summits include strengthening bilateral ties and preserving peace in the world’s most dynamic region.
 
Much of the Park-Xi agenda will be devoted to economic and trade issues and opportunities, and to other bilateral and global challenges.  But both leaders recognize that North Korean actions pose the greatest threat to regional peace and the continued prosperity of their own nations.  Their discussions should, and will, devote much time and attention to what each can do, individually, jointly, and with the United States, to persuade Pyongyang to change its dangerous and counterproductive behavior.
 
After testing three nuclear devices, Pyongyang is now openly threatening the United States with a pre-emptive nuclear attack and has engaged in nuclear proliferation with a number of countries. While Pyongyang says its nuclear program is directed only against the United States, many South Koreans believe that the North’s possession of nuclear devices emboldened it to launch two deadly conventional attacks on the South in 2010. What more might Pyongyang do, they fear, if it continues on its current path?
 
North Korea has developed nuclear weapons and delivery systems because it feels threatened from all sides and judges that, unlike the South, it has no reliable ally.  But the real threat to the regime comes from within, not from without. Its misguided policies impoverish its people and prevent the DPRK from following a path of reform and opening to the outside world that has brought stability and prosperity to all of its neighbors, a path that Chinese leaders have urged on Pyongyang for over two decades. 
 
Pyongyang’s leaders seem to have deluded themselves into believing that nuclear weapons will ensure both their security and economic prosperity—even though neither Washington nor Seoul had or has any intention to attack the North, and Pyongyang has long had the functional equivalent of weapons of mass destruction in its thousands of artillery tubes pointed at Seoul. They mistakenly think that Washington will eventually tire of resisting and accept the North as a nuclear weapons state, but no American president will establish diplomatic relations and support removing sanctions on North Korea until it verifiably abandons nuclear weapons.
 
In recent weeks, North Korea has called for bilateral talks with both the United States and South Korea. While it characterized those offers as "unconditional," its own statements made it clear that it regards any talks as being premised on its being and remaining a nuclear weapons state, a condition it knows neither Washington nor Seoul can accept.
 
Before Pyongyang moves farther down a path that threatens peace and security while, ironically, achieving none of its own goals, Park, Xi, Obama, and other regional leaders must seek to persuade Kim to discard failed policies in favor of proven alternatives. At the same time, they must find ways to contain the danger his regime will pose to the region and global nonproliferation efforts until he has an epiphany.
 
President Park said this week that the upcoming Korea-China summit “comes at a more important juncture than at any other time in terms of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.”  Without question, President Park’s summit in Beijing could well be one of the most consequential global diplomatic events of the year.
 
Thomas Fingar served as the U.S. deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and chairman of the National Intelligence Council; Gi-Wook Shin is director of Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center; and David Straub is a former director of Korean affairs at the U.S. State Department.
 
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Will Demographic Change Slow China's Rise?

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China's population of 1.34 billion is now 50 percent urban, over 13 percent above age 60, and with 118 boys born for every 100 girls. For such a large population at a relatively low level of per capita income, how will aging interact with substantial gender imbalance and rapid urbanization?

Will Demographic Change Slow China’s Rise? In the eponymous article recently published in the Journal of Asia Studies, five Stanford scholars of political science, sociology, and economics based at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center — Karen Eggleston, Jean C. Oi, Scott Rozelle, Andrew Walder, and Xueguang Zhou, with a former postdoctoral fellow Ang Sun — discuss how the intertwined demographic changes pose an unprecedented challenge to social and economic governance, contributing to and magnifying the effects of a slower rate of economic growth.

The authors touch upon a wide range of topics of policy import:
· China must overhaul rural education quickly if it is going to avoid producing tens of millions of workers who will be marginalized in the nation's future high-wage, high-skill economy.
· Growth slowdowns are almost always productivity growth slowdowns. Many forces impinge on multi-factor productivity; the stability and predictability of markets and governance are lynchpins. Discontent with widening disparities in China could undermine this fundamental foundation of growth.
· Demographic change will fundamentally challenge the conventional governance structures in China. Efforts to impose a bureaucratic solution to the intertwined social challenges China faces will almost inevitably stoke tensions between the society and the state. In both urban and rural areas, expansion of the bureaucratic state may become the central target of popular contention.
· China's high savings rate is partly explained by low fertility and parents' need to save for their own old-age support. Initiation of rural pensions and significant expansion of health insurance coverage and are examples of the social policy responses that China has undertaken to prepare for “growing old before becoming rich.” But much remains to be done.
· China's increasing burden of chronic disease further exacerbates the growth-slowing potential of a more elderly population and its associated medical expenditure burden.
· Although reducing precautionary savings and increasing domestic consumption as an engine of economic growth are widely acknowledged goals for China's economy, a rapid decline in savings could also imperil China's future economic growth by jeopardizing the current basis of the financial system.
· Demographic change will shape almost every aspect of how China copes with a slowing rate of economic growth, and may play a decisive role in the future social stability of China, with spillover effects for the region and the rest of the world.
The research is one product of a 3-year project analyzing Asian demographic change which will conclude in 2014 with a conference and edited book on demographic change and urbanization in China, in comparative international perspective.

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The Journal of Asian Studies
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Karen Eggleston
Jean C. Oi
Scott Rozelle
Andrew G. Walder
Xueguang Zhou
Ang Sun
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Stanford expert discusses Pyongyang special envoy to Beijing

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China is North Korea's most important ally, but relations between the two countries have appeared strained in recent months. David Straub spoke to Radio Free Asia about Pyongyang's decision to send a special envoy to Beijing in May.
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An Air Koryo plane parked at the Beijing Capital International Airport, September 2012. China is one of the few countries that the North Korean state-operated airline flies into.
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