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U.S. to send officials to Taiwan for 2 years starting next fall
Fellowship program aims to lay groundwork to address China challenges
RYO NAKAMURA, Nikkei staff writer
December 16, 2022
TOKYO
-- The U.S. plans to send government employees to Taiwan for two-year
stints through a new fellowship program starting next fall, seeking to
encourage closer bilateral cooperation as China ramps up pressure on
Taipei.
Fellows will spend their first year learning Mandarin Chinese and other relevant subjects, followed by a year working with a government agency or parliamentary office.
The
program, under the heading of the Taiwan Fellowship Act, is included in
this year's National Defense Authorization Act, which sets military
funding levels for the fiscal year ending September 2023.
The U.S. has sent government employees to Taiwan for months at a time, but longer-term programs like this are rare, a congressional source said.
Executive
Director Richard Pearson of the Western Pacific Fellowship Project, a
nonprofit that is expected to help manage the program, discussed the
plans with Nikkei.
If
the NDAA passes this month or soon after, the organization is "in a
position to launch the program in early 2023 and to welcome the first
class of fellows to Taiwan to begin language training in September 2023, but appropriate preparation needs to begin now," Pearson said.
The
Senate will vote on the NDAA as early as Thursday evening, a Senate
source told Nikkei. President Biden is expected to sign it into law soon
after the Senate approval.
Applicants
will be recruited from a broad range of agencies related to economic
and security issues, as well as the armed forces, but not intelligence services,
according to Pearson. Around 10 fellows are expected to be sent each
year, though the total will initially be in the single digits.
During
a visit to Taiwan in late November to early December, "we met with
NGOs, government officials, legislators, media and supporters," Pearson
said. "We found very strong support for the proposed fellowship program
and a desire that the Taiwan Fellowship Act be passed this month and the
fellowship program launched next year."
With tensions with China
over Taiwan expected to last for some time to come, Washington looks to
provide more support to Taipei through exchanges like this along with
visits by lawmakers. Familiarizing government employees with Taipei's
decision-making processes and policy development will help the two sides
coordinate, the thinking goes.
The program will deepen ties
between Washington and Taipei by "supporting American public servants as
they benefit from the wealth of knowledge, culture and trade that
Taiwan contributes to the global community -- creating a stronger, more
resilient U.S.-Taiwan partnership and supporting our nation's commitment
to the Indo-Pacific region," Sen. Ed Markey, a sponsor of the Taiwan
Fellowship Act, said in a statement.
President Joe Biden's
administration has taken other steps to encourage bilateral exchanges.
Guidelines issued by the U.S. government in April 2021 encourage holding
working-level talks in federal buildings, as well as allow meetings to
be held at Taiwan's representative office in Washington.
The
Taiwan Travel Act enacted in 2018 encourages visits between the U.S. and
Taiwan by officials at all levels, including cabinet members. During
previous President Donald Trump's administration, Health and Human
Services Secretary Alex Azar traveled to Taiwan in 2020, angering China.