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.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
RSS