2022 US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference

2022 US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference Banner

The US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference 2022 was held October 2-4, 2022 in Richmond, Virginia. This was the 21st annual event in a series of ongoing conferences addressing the future of U.S. defense cooperation with Taiwan, the defense procurement process, and Taiwan’s defense and national security needs.

The conference featured keynote addresses and panel discussions by speakers from both Taiwan and the United States. These speakers addressed a gathering of approximately 170 attendees, including senior executives from U.S. and Taiwan industry, a delegation from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, representatives from the U.S. government, as well as representatives from the policy-making, national security, academic, and think-tank communities from both the U.S. and Taiwan.

Monday Keynote Address
General Wang Hsin-Lung, Vice Minister (Armaments), Ministry of National Defense
Keynote Speech in English
Keynote Speech in Chinese
Introductory Comments by James Moriarty, Chairman, American Institute in Taiwan

Monday Luncheon Keynote Address
Dr. Alexander Chieh-cheng Huang, KMT Representative to the United States, Kuomintang (KMT)
Keynote Speech

Monday Dinner Keynote Address
Jedidiah P. Royal, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense
Keynote Speech

Tuesday Conference Closing Keynote
Laura Cressey, Director, Office of Regional Security and Arms Transfers, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State
(Speech not released)

Sessions

The conference opened with a discussion on the evolving threat in the Taiwan Strait. The first session examined the threat to Taiwan in light of the Russia-Ukraine war, and discussed any potential lessons that could be learned by China, Taiwan, and the United States.

The second session considered the growth and evolution of Taiwan’s strategic thinking, to improve U.S. industry understanding of the current trajectory for Taiwan defense planning in the short, medium, and long term. The third session discussed non-traditional engagement efforts between the U.S. and Taiwan – training, logistics, sustainment, industrial cooperation, etc. – with a particular focus on industry collaboration and how such undertakings can support both Taiwan and U.S. national security goals.

The fourth session focused on deterrence and resilience, discussing Phase Zero activities and measures that could help improve Taiwan’s defensive posture, and panelists discussed ways that bilateral cooperation could help improve deterrence and build Taiwan’s resilience. The fifth and final session continued the discussion on deterrence and resilience, taking a regional approach to a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait by examining the role that other U.S. partners and allies such as Japan and Australia could play in ongoing deterrence efforts.

Conference History

The first conference in this series was the St. Petersburg, Florida event where former Taiwan Minister of National Defense Tang Yiau-ming gave the keynote address in March of 2002. The second conference in the series was held in February 2003 in San Antonio, Texas, the third in October 2004 in Phoenix, Arizona, the fourth in September 2005 in San Diego, California, the fifth in September 2006 in Denver, Colorado, and the sixth in September 2007 in Annapolis, Maryland.

Taiwan’s Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min gave the keynote address at the seventh conference in the series, held in September 2008 on Amelia Island, Florida. The eighth conference was held in September 2009 in Charlottesville, Virginia, the ninth in October 2010 in Cambridge, Maryland, and the tenth in September 2011 in Richmond, Virginia. The eleventh conference was held in September 2012 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the twelfth in September 2013 in Annapolis, Maryland, the thirteenth in October 2014 in Williamsburg, Virginia, the fourteenth in October 2015 in Williamsburg, Virginia, the fifteenth in October 2016 in Williamsburg, Virginia, the sixteenth in Princeton, New Jersey in October 2017, the seventeenth in Annapolis, Maryland in October 2018, the eighteenth in Ellicott City, Maryland in October 2019, and the nineteenth as a virtual conference in October 2020. The 20th conference took place in Leesburg, Virginia in October 2021.

More Information

The website for the conference is located at www.taiwandefenseconference.com.