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.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS