Franz Michael is professor emeritus at George Washington University, where he was associate director and director of the Institute for Sino-Soviet Studies from 1964 to 1972. Dr. Michael's publications include Rule by Incarnation: Tibetan Buddhism and Its Role in Society and State (Westview). John F. Copper is the Stanley J. Buckman Distinguished Professor of International Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He is the author of more than twenty books on Taiwan, China, and Asian Affairs. His book China's Global Role (1980) won the Clarence Day Foundation Award for outstanding research and creativity activity.

Professor Copper's most recent books include Historical Dictionary of Taiwan (second edition) published in 2000 and Taiwan in Troubled Times (edited) published in 2002. Dr. Copper was recipient of the International Communications Award in 1997. Maria Hsia Chang is professor of political science at the University of Nevada at Reno. A native of Hong Kong, she received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. She is the author of The Labors of Sisyphus: The Economic Development of Communist China and The Chinese Blue Shirt Society: Fascism and Developmental Nationalism .