Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, one of the most respected US academics specializing in Taiwan studies, has died in Washington following a long battle against cancer.
Her 2009 book, Strait Talk: US-Taiwan Relations and the Crisis with China, examined the political and security issues in the triangular relationship.
Tucker’s books, speeches and private advice influenced US policy toward China and Taiwan over the past two decades.
“She made a great contribution to understanding Taiwan’s role in American diplomacy and before that in understanding American diplomacy in a historical context,” former American Institute in Taiwan director Douglas Paal said.
“On top of that, she was a really caring professor who helped her students develop careers,” he said.
A professor of history at Georgetown University and at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Tucker specialized in US relations with China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
“She was a first-rate historian of Sino-American relations, a passionate teacher and a dedicated public servant,” School of Foreign Service dean Carol Lancaster said.
In the middle of the 1980s, Tucker served in the Office of Chinese Affairs at the US Department of State and at the US embassy in Bejing.
Tucker was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
She edited the 2005 book Dangerous Straits about contemporary problems in US-Taiwan-China relations and was the author of Uncertain Friendships: Taiwan, Hong Kong and the US, 1945-1992, which won the 1996 Bernath Book Prize.
The Wilson Center issued a statement saying that Tucker — a Wilson Center scholar — was one of “the most respected historians of her generation.”
She is survived by her husband, Warren Cohen, who is also a Wilson Center senior scholar.
“Few in Washington compared to her in terms of incisive and straightforward analysis of US relations with both Taiwan and China,” said Gerrit van der Wees, a senior political adviser at the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.
Tucker was “unsparing” in her criticism of former US president Richard Nixon and former US national security adviser Henry Kissinger for giving “Beijing what it wanted in order to make a deal” over Taiwan, Van der Wees said.
Recently, she expressed strong reservations about the willingness of China’s new leaders to move in what she considered the “right” direction.
“A more realistic appraisal of China’s leaders reveals a group of conservative and cautious men highly unlikely to take bold steps toward structural reform,” she wrote.
“Their priority is to keep themselves in power,” Tucker said.
“Her hard-nosed realism and the charm with which she was able to present her arguments will be dearly missed,” Van der Wees said.
“She was a great historian and a lady who stood by the basic principles for which the US stands,” he said.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man