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Similarly, the Center for a New American Security, whose mission is to “develop strong, pragmatic and principled national security and defense policies that promote and protect American interests and values,” was also a
in CNAS’s most recent fiscal year.
CNAS scholars, like their peers, did not disclose their funding from Taiwan when providing their Washington audience with advice on “
,” a 2020 report. CNAS experts suggested a number of changes in U.S. policy that would benefit Taiwan’s security and economy. They wrote that the U.S. “can do much to strengthen its diplomatic and security relationship with Taiwan” and urged policymakers to “prioritize” a bilateral investment and trade agreement with Taiwan.
When asked about CNAS’s decision not to proactively disclose the potential conflict of interest, a spokesperson said that it “rigorously adheres to and publicly emphasizes its Intellectual Independence Policy on all reports,” which is available on its
.
That policy details the ways in which CNAS claims independence and editorial control over its research products. But the guidelines provide no guidance about disclosing potential conflicts of interest between funders and the reports produced by the organization.
Even the Center for Strategic and International Studies, ranked by the
as the top think tank in the United States in 2019, followed the same trend, over
from TECRO. CSIS fails to mention the funding source when its scholars analyze U.S.-Taiwan relations in the media.
Last month, CSIS published
by Kurt Tong, a senior nonresident adviser, in which he argued for a U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement, concluding with an argument that Taiwan’s positive reputation in Washington, and a need for the U.S. to exhibit “leadership” in Asia, justifies the policy shift. “olstered U.S. leadership in Asia” would be one of the benefits of such an agreement, according to Tong.
CSIS did not respond to a request for comment about their publication of analysis that appeared to benefit the interests of one of their top funders without providing any disclosure. (After publication of this article, a CSIS staffer noted that a
on Taiwan disclosed its foreign ministry as a funding source.)
Then there’s the Hudson Institute, a right-leaning think tank with a long-standing hawkish anti-China posture. Hudson received over $100,000 from TECRO in 2018, according to their
.
Without disclosing the potential conflict of interest, last month Hudson scholars Patrick M. Cronin and Ryan Neuhard
selling “cluster-munitions or incendiary weapons” so “Taiwan could credibly threaten non-military targets that have significant political value to [Chinese Communist Party] leadership,” effectively suggesting that Taiwan be encouraged to threaten non-military targets in China, a potential violation of international law.
Cronin and Neuhard also urged U.S. policymakers to “clarify its commitment to stand up to aggression” and “remove some of the ambiguity about what they think privately; namely, that an unprovoked attack on the people of Taiwan would trigger a US military response,” an escalatory measure, if made public, that could bring the U.S. closer to a cold war posture toward China.
Hudson took their policy suggestions even further, encouraging U.S. policymakers to pursue policies that would directly benefit the ruling Pan-Green coalition in Taiwan, effectively benefiting the political decision-makers in Taiwan who oversee TECRO’s budget and funding of think tanks, including Hudson.
Writing on Hudson’s website last month, Seth Cropsey, the director of the Center for American Seapower at Hudson, urged U.S. policymakers to recognize “an autonomous or independent Taiwan,” a move that Cropsey admits “will enrage the CCP.” Doing so would “bolster Taiwan’s clearly anti-Beijing Pan-Green Coalition,” wrote Cropsey, effectively urging the U.S. to take sides in Taiwan’s internal politics.
Hudson did not respond to a request for comment about their pattern of publishing materials beneficial to Taiwan’s current government without disclosing their funding from TECRO.
Why not disclose?
Hudson may be the most extreme in its policy proposals, but the consistent behavior from the five think tanks is unmistakable: General support funding from Taiwan’s government is
never disclosed when experts, whose salaries may well be partially funded by TECRO dollars, offer policy recommendations regarding U.S.-Taiwan relations.
“My philosophy is that if you’re producing any report, you should put right up front in an acknowledgment section that lists the specific funders, including general-support funders, that helped make this report possible and list any potential conflict of interest with the funders,” said Freeman of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative. “Let the reader judge for themself whether there’s a conflict of interest.”
Though the appearance or possibility of a conflict of interest does not mean that the funding flows from Taiwan influenced the work products produced by the think tanks, the decision not to prominently disclose the funding may undermine otherwise valuable analysis and policy proposals.
“It seems like because they hid it, they have something to hide,” said Freeman. “When the public trust in government is at all-time lows and people think D.C. is so corrupt, it’s even more important for think tanks and think tank scholars to put this information out there and try and restore the trust of the American public.”
Indeed, as acceptance of a cold war posture toward China becomes ever more accepted as a foregone conclusion by Washington influencers, one of them actually highlighted the danger of foreign funding going largely undisclosed.
CNAS’s 2020 report that advocated for a U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement warned of think tanks receiving “substantial funding from Beijing that is often targeted at shaping views and discourse on China.” CNAS recommended “higher degrees of transparency” to help “ensure that this funding is not generating hidden forms of foreign lobbying, self-censorship, or other activities that undermine core U.S. democratic principles.”
That self-awareness about the potential influence of foreign funding, and the ethical arguments for greater transparency, does not appear to extend to the omnipresent funding stream from Taipei to think tanks across the Beltway.
*In the interest of full disclosure: Eli Clifton, the author of this article, and Ben Armbruster, the managing editor of Responsible Statecraft, are former employees of the Center for American Progress.
