A US plan to send 10 officials to study and intern in Taiwan every two years is crucial for the two sides to build trust, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said.
The US Senate last month passed the Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which approved US$2 billion in annual military grants to Taiwan.
One noteworthy part of the NDAA is that it includes the Taiwan Fellowship Act, Wang, who chairs the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, said on Sunday.
Photo: Reuters
Under the fellowship act, the US would send 10 federal government employees to live in Taiwan on a two-year fellowship, during which they would spend one year learning Mandarin and about local issues, and the other interning in the public sector, he said.
Such programs enable grassroots civil servants to interact with each other, so that when they become senior officials, they can communicate directly with counterparts in the other country whom they are familiar with, he said.
The fellowship act was inspired by past exchanges between the US and Japan, and such programs have helped build a stable relationship between the US and Japan, he said.
Asked whether the US might intervene in Taiwan’s domestic affairs through such programs, Wang said that they were “thinking too much.”
Taiwan can provide internship opportunities in the public sector for US officials, he said, adding that the Industrial Technology Research Institute might be a good option as its employees are not limited to civil servants.
The main purpose of the act is to create channels for the two countries to exchange not in national defense or security, but in the economy and healthcare, he said.
Asked whether internship opportunities could become available in the US for Taiwanese civil servants, Wang said that more interactions with other countries would be beneficial to Taiwan.
Engaging in international exchanges without compromising Taiwan’s dignity, interests and laws would provide good opportunities for young Taiwanese civil servants, he said.
DPP Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said that the details of the fellowship, including the officials the US would send to Taiwan and the agencies that would provide the internships, are still being deliberated.
The program “is undoubtedly going to cement the relationship between Taiwan and the US,” he said.
If a situation demands the two sides to work together, whether in a time of calm or in an emergency, the exchange would demonstrate its effectiveness, he said.
Lo said he thinks that people who are concerned about the US intervening in Taiwan’s domestic affairs “worry too much,” as exchanges between civil servants and military personnel from different countries are normal.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS