Taiwan's Economic and Diplomatic Challenges and Opportunities (ePub)

Mariah Thornton is an enthusiastic researcher of Chinese politics with an undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford and an MSc in the Politics of China from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. From 2012 to 2013 she completed a year abroad at Peking University and later received the Huayu Scholarship from the Taiwan Ministry of Education to undergo intensive study of Mandarin at National Taiwan Normal University from 2015 to 2016. Mariah Thornton worked as a press and communications adviser at the Taipei Representative Office in the United Kingdom under Representative and former Foreign Minister David Y.L. Lin from 2018 to 2020.

Robert Ash (Bob Ash) is an Emeritus Professor at SOAS University of London, and Founder and Professorial Research Associate of the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS. Before his retirement in 2020 he was Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan, and Professorial Fellow of the SOAS China Institute. From 1986 to 1995 he was Head of the Contemporary China Institute at SOAS; during 1997·2001 he was Director of the EU-China Academic Network. From 1999 to 2013 Bob Ash was Director of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Programme and its Centre of Taiwan Studies. In 2012 he received the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the ROC Government in recognition of his efforts on behalf of Taiwan Studies in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Bob Ash has held visiting research and teaching positions at universities in Australia, Hong Kong, France, and Italy. He has been researching China for more than 40 years and has written or edited 15 books, mainly on development issues relating to China, but also on issues relating to Taiwan and Hong Kong.