Nineteen students and young professionals from Taiwan, the US and Europe have completed an intensive two-week course on how to lobby the US Congress and promote better Taiwan-US relations.
The 12th annual Ambassador Program was organized by the Formosa Foundation and was conducted in Washington to teach grassroots campaign and advocacy skills.
“The nation’s continued democratic consolidation, economic viability and security are vital to US interests,” foundation board member Eugene Wu (吳東進) said.
The course involved 27 workshops and keynote addresses by policymakers, including US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, and US senators Sherrod Brown and Lisa Murkowski.
They met and heard academics such as Brookings Institution director of East Asia Policy Studies Richard Bush, a former American Institute in Taiwan chairman; Project 2049 Institute executive director Mark Stokes; American Enterprise Institute director of Asian Studies Dan Blumenthal; and University of Miami professor June Teufel Dreyer.
US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-
Chambers spoke about the importance of free markets and their role in a flourishing democracy.
Heritage Foundation fellows Dean Cheng (成斌) and Bill Wilson gave a briefing on Taiwan’s defense capabilities and economy and author Gordon Chang (章家敦) spoke on the nation’s increasingly pivotal role in the Asia-Pacific region.
Others who addressed the group were Congressional Research Services specialist Shirley Kan, International Assessment and Strategy Center director John Tkacik, Foreign Policy Initiative director Robert Zarte and Center for the National Interest director Joanna Yu Taylor.
Formosa Films executive Will Tiao (刁毓能) shared his personal experience producing the movie Formosa Betrayed and elaborated on effective messaging on Capitol Hill.
Over the course of the two-week program, the attendees met with 145 members of Congress and their staff.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS