Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) — Papers on how Chinese interests are weaponizing the information space within Taiwan and on the significance of rhetoric and reforms in the American healthcare policy discussion won Hoover’s 2026 Distinguished Undergraduate Essay Competition.
"A free society depends on citizens who can think clearly and argue well. This competition asks students to do both, and that is why it matters so much today," said Senior Fellow Russell A. Berman, who created the essay competition.
"If we lose the ability to reason on the page, we lose the capacity to govern ourselves," he said.
The papers were judged by a panel composed of Hoover fellows Berman, Norman Naimark, and John H. Cochrane. The award winners are Stanford undergraduate students pursuing majors that represent a broad set of academic interests.
The students distinguished themselves through the strength of their writing on topics concerning the values and institutions of liberty and how public policies impact human freedom.
Distinguished Essay Award Winners:
Emily Chan (Major: art history and Asian studies, class of 2026)
Essay Title: “Beijing Didn’t Hack Taiwan’s Newsrooms. It Bought Them.”
In her paper, Chan cites four incidents to show how Beijing and large corporations exert control over Taiwan’s news and information space. They range from the arrest of Jimmy Lai and the forced shutdown of his newspaper, Apple Daily, in 2020, to more recent examples of selective news coverage of China by Taiwanese outlets owned by interests sympathetic to the mainland. She also writes of the use of AI to spread misinformation and disinformation in Taiwan’s most recent election.
Adam Langshaw (Major: public policy, class of 2030)
Essay Title: “Coverage, Rights, and the Rhetoric of Reform: A Conceptual Analysis of Universal Healthcare in America”
Langshaw’s essay examines the origins of the US healthcare system, cites the meaningful differences between calls for “universal healthcare” and the declaration that “healthcare is a human right,” and points out why the US system does not offer universality of coverage. Through citing the history of the US healthcare system, he points out why it charted a different path than its equivalents in the UK, Canada, and mainland Europe.
Six other submissions were lauded as honorable mentions: “Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law,” by Riya Aghi (political science, class of 2029); “Art as Resistance: Iranian Women’s Fight for Life and Freedom,” by Catherine Armstrong (human biology, class of 2027); “Socialist Realism in the Stalinist Era: How Soviet Composers Co-Authored the Doctrine That Governed Them,” by Tyler Chew (computer science, class of 2030); “Modernizing the Kingdom: The Promise and Limits of Saudi Economic Reform,” by Aston Davies (political science, class of 2027); “Was Thucydides a Hedgehog or a Fox?” by Rachel Ding (undeclared, class of 2028); and “Iran Is My Mother: Iraqi Intelligence and the Egyptian-Iranian Relationship, 1976–1988,” by Levi Schiffer (international relations, lass of 2030).
Both essay competition winners received a cash prize.
To learn more about the competition and read about prior years’ winners, click here.
