Sixteen students have been racing through the halls of the US Congress over the past two weeks lobbying politicians to improve Taiwan-US relations.
They were members of the “Ambassador Program” organized by the Formosa Foundation to encourage Capitol Hill to improve trade relations, arms sales, military cooperation and Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations.
This was the program’s 13th annual “Congressional boot camp,” which was designed to help the students develop grassroots advocacy and campaign skills.
During the whirlwind sessions, the students met with a total of 119 members of Congress.
While almost all of the students were from Taiwan or the US, this year’s class included one student from China currently studying in the US.
“With on-the-ground activist work and training with think tanks and experts, the ambassadors garner a strong knowledge base on Taiwan-US relations and gain an insider’s perspective on how Congress works,” program director Yeh Chieh-ting (葉介庭) said.
US House Foreign Affairs Committee Asia Subcommittee chairman Representative Matt Salmon talked with the students about the US’ “one China” policy and about his current efforts to win Interpol membership for the nation.
Others who talked with the students included US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers, Washington-based Liberty Times correspondent Nadia Tsao (曹郁芬), American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) managing director Joseph Donovan and Project 2049 executive director Mark Stokes.
Human Rights Watch China director Sophie Richardson, the National Interest executive editor Harry Kazianis and Freedom House vice president of analysis Vanessa Tucker also addressed the ambassadors.
Others who spoke to the group included RAND Corp policy analyst Joanna Yu Taylor, University of Miami professor June Dreyer, author Gordon Chang (章家敦), Brookings Institution scholar Richard Bush, Foreign Policy Initiative executive director Christopher Griffin and Formosan Association for Public Affairs president Mark Kao (高龍榮).
Since its launch in 2003, more than 300 students have graduated the Ambassador Program, collectively holding more than 1,700 meetings with members of Congress.
The program is financed entirely from individual and private contributions.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS