Rowena He
Rowena He is a historian of modern China whose work examines the 1989 democracy movement and its legacy. She is a Hoover Institution fellow and author of studies on the Tiananmen movement.
George Shultz Combined Cold War Pressure With Diplomacy
At a Hoover Institution memorial lecture, Condoleezza Rice, Philip Taubman, Michael Boskin and Abraham Sofaer portrayed George Shultz’s Cold War diplomacy as a combination of pressure on the Soviet Union and efforts to keep negotiations open. They argued that Shultz strengthened the U.S. position and helped Ronald Reagan pursue arms agreements, while his influence depended on persuading a president who retained the authority to decide. The panel also differed over whether the 1986 Reykjavik summit could have produced a workable deal.
China’s Detention System Joins Forced Labor With Ideological Reform
At a Hoover Institution discussion, historian Frank Dikötter argued that China’s system of political detention has changed its methods but not its core purposes: forced labor and ideological reform. Orville Schell, Rowena He and Glenn Tiffert examined how imprisonment and the threat of it affect families, constrain speech and shape public memory, while Dikötter cautioned against assuming that exposing abuses will bring political change. The speakers also traced the system’s reach into international supply chains and surveillance technology.
China Could Pressure Taiwan Into Submission Without Invading
In Defending Taiwan, Eyck Freymann argues that U.S. strategy is too narrowly focused on deterring a Chinese invasion and is underprepared for a gray-zone crisis that could isolate Taiwan without open war. Freymann’s case, developed in discussion with Hoover Institution participants including Philip Zelikow, is that Beijing’s most plausible path may be legal, commercial, and coercive control over Taiwan’s external ties. Deterrence, he argues, will require Washington and its allies to integrate military power with political discipline, economic planning, technological leverage, and diplomatic coordination before such a crisis begins.