Taiwan and the US are discussing the details of the Taiwan Fellowship Program, which would allow US federal employees to work in Taiwanese government agencies for a year, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said.
It told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that it would head up the program and work with partners to implement it.
The AIT’s headquarters in Washington, its office in Taipei and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US are holding preliminary discussions on the program, it said.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
The Taiwan Fellowship Act, included in the US National Defense Authorization Act passed in December last year, provides support for the program.
The fellowship act, modeled after the Mansfield Fellowship Program established in 1994 between the US and Japan, was proposed by pro-Taiwan US lawmakers in 2020.
After it was not included in the legislative agenda in 2020, lawmakers asked the US secretary of state to explore the feasibility of the program in 2021.
The act tasks the secretary of state with consulting the AIT director before submitting an implementation plan for the program to the funding committee within 90 days of the law’s enactment, which is in the middle of next month.
Under the program, US federal employees and other eligible participants could receive fellowships to study and work in Taiwan for up to two years.
The fellows are to study Mandarin, the local culture and regional situation in the first year, before working in a government agency, legislative office or approved private-sector entity in the second year, the act says.
After the preliminary discussions are completed, there would be an open process to choose qualified agencies to implement the program, the AIT said, adding that no promises have been made to any agency.
The recruitment and selection of fellows would begin after the partners are chosen, it said.
Some local media reported alleged details and schedules of the program, saying that it might begin as soon as this year, but officials familiar with the act said that such details have not been finalized.
The program might be expanded to allow for bilateral exchanges, with Taiwanese public-sector employees able to work in agencies in the US, they said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard