Dear Delegates,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Taipei Convention of 2025 of Harvard National Model United Nations 2011. My name is Byran Dai, and I will be serving as your Director for the committee alongside Jerry Kung, our talented and masterful Crisis Director. This is an extraordinary time for the island, and with it come extraordinary measures and policies to consider.

I am a senior at the college concentrating in History and Science, with a secondary focus in Health Policy, and have been involved with Model UN since my freshman year of high school. It’s been an incredible experience for me to have directed in the past, as well as to have served as the Under-Secretary-General for Administration at Harvard Model United Nations 2010. This marks my final year with MUN, and I’m looking to make my final committee one that will be as memorable for you as it is for me.

With that, our attention now turns to the future. Economic issues have continued to plague the world as new political developments complicate matters in the year 2025. Taiwan has not been immune to these pressures, and has found itself in the center of a brewing crisis that demands the full attention not just of its government, but of the brightest and most authoritative figures that the land has to offer.

At the behest of Taiwan’s leadership, these prominent individuals have pledged to offer their expertise towards handling such a delicate situation that requires the utmost care and foresight to guide themselves and their compatriots towards a successful future that will see the continuing achievements of their people.

By thinking of the actions of the future, we can avoid having to constantly look to the past for our answers. Instead, it is my hope that you come out of this committee more understanding and cognizant of the complexity that surrounds the issues that drive our world. I hope you look to find solutions that will help build the ideas that you, as leaders of tomorrow, will take to heart in whatever direction that life will take you.

Throughout this process, I look forward to communicating with you and helping to clear up anything that might arise. Feel free to email me if you have any questions and I sincerely hope to see you at conference!

Best Regards,

Byran Dai
Director, Taipei Convention of 2025
Harvard National Model United Nations 2011

Topic Area: Cross-Strait Relations

Significant developments have taken place in the past fifteen years. Economic issues within mainland China have brought about political reverberations felt around the world, especially in Taiwan. The diminishing role of the superpower on the world stage has given rise to a new multi-polar environment in which states now strive to assert their influence as they have never been able to before. An increasingly prosperous Taiwan has seen itself once again at odds with mainland China as it seeks to exert its presence on the international community, forcing many intergovernmental bodies and nations to revive long-dormant policies on the doctrine of Chinese political representation. The upwelling of national pride in the island has gone hand in hand with public outcry from many elements of the Taiwanese populace at the lack of perceived respect from the world, a sentiment that has contributed to the deteriorating relationship with the mainland. Amidst accusations of foreign influence affecting political and governmental institutions on the island, Taiwan’s most illustrious and well-respected thinkers and leaders have convened in order to work to restore the legitimacy of Taiwan’s government in the eyes of its people. However, with each passing day come increasingly radical calls by the island’s populace for greater self-sufficiency and self-identity in governance, but the need to foster continued economic and political cooperation with the mainland has all but guaranteed an ideological battle for the emerging power. The result of the battle will serve as a defining moment in Taiwanese history, and its fate falls on the shoulders of the men and women of the Taipei Convention of 2025.