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.
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