On Friday, September 12, Brooking's Center for East Asia Policy Studies convened a conference on China-Taiwan relations, in cooperation with Taiwan's Association of Foreign Relations. The presentations were stimulating and the audience participation was good (a transcript of the event should be posted soon).

As it happened, I received a lot of coverage in the Taiwan media for some remarks I made at the end of my presentation, concerning how the United States government would approach the 2016 Taiwan presidential election. I suppose I should be flattered by all the attention my remarks evoked. I did appreciate the mature and measured response from Dr. Joseph Wu, secretary-general of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). I have absolutely no objection to the quite accurate comment of the spokesman of the American Institute in Taiwan that I am no longer a government official and was speaking for myself. I was not surprised that some reporters didn't get their facts exactly right; that's not unheard of in either the Taiwan or the American media. But what I've seen from the Taipei Times is truly puzzling.