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| 美国在台协会（AIT）台北办事处处长郦英杰22日举行第四场，也是最后一场“四个增进”演说。(中评社 黄筱筠摄) |
中评社台北11月22日电（记者 黄筱筠）美国在台协会（AIT）台北办事处处长郦英杰今天举行第四场，也是最后一场“四个增进”演说，郦英杰强调他上任时就提出的主张，主要谈的是“增进美台人民的关系”，这是他作为美国在台协会处长的四大优先目标。他演讲内容仍是强调，美国与台湾关系过去四十年来蓬勃发展。最后他也强调，美台关系非常紧密，这些紧密合作就是美台基础。
郦英杰演讲中文全文如下：
大家早。谢谢各位今天前来听我发表我的第四场、也是最后一场“四个增进”演说，要谈的是“增进美台人民的关系”，这也是我作为美国在台协会处长的四大优先目标、也就是“四个增进”之一。跟大家复习一下，“四个增进”分别是：增进美台安全合作、增进美台经济与商业关系、增进台湾在全球社会的角色，以及增进美台人民的关系。
一段特别的友谊
要讨论美台人民之间坚实的关系，最好的例子可能就是台湾奥运英雄杨传广和美国田径传奇拉斐尔‧强生（Rafer Johnson）之间特别又出人意料的友谊了。
在冷战的高峰时期，杨传广在1954年马尼拉亚运拿下十项全能金牌、1958年东京亚运再度蝉联冠军，使台湾因此大放异彩。身为阿美族人，杨传广必须克服许多挑战，才能参加1960年的奥运会。在不懂任何英文的情况下，他搬到了加州，在加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）和奥运夺牌热门选手强生一起接受训练。强生帮助杨传广学英文，两人互相帮助对方训练，后来更成为了好友。1960年，他们两人一起在罗马奥运的十项全能比赛上同场较劲，最后强生获得金牌，杨传广拿下银牌；日后，杨传广更成为撑竿跳和十项全能运动的世界纪录保持人。杨传广与强生成为终生的好友，直到他于2007年过世。他们两人长久的友谊，可以说就是美台友谊在个人身上最好的体现。
过去四十年来，美台关系持续蓬勃发展。我对美台为促进双方人民之间的情谊更加深厚所做的共同努力，感到十分骄傲。
美台人民情谊：坚实紧密、持续茁壮
在台湾，几乎人人都有亲戚、或至少是朋友在美国；相对地，每一天则都有八万多名美国公民在台湾。美国是台湾旅客长途旅行的首选目的地；而在来台的外国旅客中，美国的排名则高居第八，是前十名的旅客来源地中、唯一一个不位在亚洲的国家。
我第一次派驻美国在台协会是在1980年代。我还记得当时信义路的办公室外，申请签证的队伍总是大排长龙。这样的日子已经结束了。今天，我们已经搬进位于内湖、斥资2.55亿美元的新馆，而台湾赴美的旅客大部分都能享有免签证待遇。现在AIT每年仍然办理大约34,000件签证申请案，不过几乎半数以上都是申请学生签证。
根据本周稍早公布的“2019年国际教育交流门户开放报告”（Open Doors Report，https://www.iie.org/opendoors），美国仍然是台湾学生海外留学的首选目的地，台湾赴美留学的学生人数已经连续四年成长。在2018-2019学年，就有23,369名台湾学生在美国的大专院校就读，较前一年成长百分之4.1。台湾仍然是美国第七大国际学生来源地，领先日本、巴西和墨西哥。
今天，台湾由学术交流基金会及那原道（Randall Nadeau）执行长主持的“台湾傅尔布莱特计划”，已成为全球规模最大的傅尔布莱特计划之一，而AIT现在也正与“教育部”及“外交部”合作，为这项重要计划提供更多支持。另外，台湾也在努力为全台各地的学生增加学习英语的机会；而AIT也正透过国务院的“英语研究员计划”（English Language Fellow Program）及“英语教育专家计划”（English Language Specialist Program），支持这些工作。
我也很高兴看到有愈来愈多美国学生来台湾学习中文。上个月，我和“外交部”徐斯俭次长及来自美国12所顶尖大学中文语言课程的代表，一起在台大参加了“美国国家中文领航项目台湾中心”（Chinese Flagship Taiwan Center）的开幕仪式。台湾是学习中文的绝佳地点，我们很期待透过这项计划与其他交流活动，像是“美国高中生华语奖学金计划”（NSLI-Y）和“关键语言奖学金课程”（CLS），欢迎更多美国学生来台湾求学。
另一项我非常乐见关于美台人民的新活动，就是“人才循环大联盟计划”（TCA，https://www.talentcirculationalliance.org/），这是我们在今年稍早与“经济部”一起推出的全新公私部门合作伙伴计划。“人才循环大联盟计划”的目的是要培养大批有能力、与国际接轨并精通数位科技的专业人才，以促进台湾、美国及全印太区域的创新和繁荣。在自由且开放的印太区域促进人才的活跃交流，将能确保将投资与人才都牢牢地留在共享透明、法治与人权价值的民主社会。
总而言之，美台人民之间的情谊坚实紧密，并正持续茁壮。我们期待与台湾许多伙伴进行更多的合作，让双方人民的关系更上层楼。
第四场“数位对话”
2019年一整年，AIT也与台湾各机关合作，透过一系列的“数位对话”（https://www.ait.org.tw/ait-at-40/digital-dialogues/），聆听台湾社会大众的想法和意见。在我今天致词之后，我们就会正式启动第四场“数位对话”。本次对话要询问台湾朋友的问题是：“美国和台湾应该做些什么，来加深美台人民之间的情谊？”如果感兴趣，只要上美国在台协会的网站，搜寻“数位对话”，就能找到参加方式。一月底，我们会举办一场特别的论坛，讨论收到的各种建议。
最后，我想强调美台人民的情谊在美台关系中的重要性。美台人民之间的关系是将美国与台湾紧紧相系的连结纽带。透过观光、移民、婚姻、学术与专业交流及现代通讯科技所培育出来的各种情谊，不只让我们的人民非常亲近，也传递了我们共享的价值。这些种种情谊的重要性更胜其他，是美台关系真正的基础。
谢谢大家。
英文全文如下：
Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining me today for my 4th and final “Promote Speech,” which is on people-to-people ties, one of my four key priorities as AIT director – or sige zengjins. Just to review – these four promotes are: Promote the U.S.-Taiwan security relationship, promote the U.S.-Taiwan economic and commercial relationship, promote Taiwan’s greater role in the international community, and promote U.S.-Taiwan people-to-people relations.
A Special Friendship
The strength of our people-to-people relationship is perhaps best captured by the story of the special and, perhaps unlikely, friendship between Taiwan Olympic hero CK Yang and U.S. Track and Field Legend Rafer Johnson.
Yang put Taiwan on the map at the height of the Cold War by winning gold medals in the decathlon at the Asian Games in 1954 in Manila and again in 1958 in Tokyo. As a member of the Ami tribe, he had to overcome many challenges to attend the 1960 Olympics. Without knowing any English, he moved to California to train at UCLA with Rafer Johnson, the Olympic favorite. Johnson helped Yang with English, they trained together, and eventually the two became great friends. They competed against each other in the decathlon event at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, with Johnson winning the gold and Yang the silver. Yang would later go on to become the world record holder in both the pole vault and the decathlon. Yang and Johnson remained close friends until Yang passed away in 2007. This longstanding friendship between Yang and Johnson is one example at a personal level of U.S.-Taiwan friendship.
Over the last forty years, this relationship has continued to grow, and I am proud of the work that the United States and Taiwan are doing together to promote even stronger people-to-people ties.
Our People-to-People Ties: Strong and Growing
It is hard to find anyone in Taiwan who doesn’t have relatives or at least friends in the United States, and, on any given day, there are more than 80,000 U.S. citizens here. The United States is the #1 long-haul destination for Taiwan travelers, and the United States is now the 8th-highest source of tourists to Taiwan, the only country in the top 10 outside of Asia.
I was assigned to AIT for the first time in the 1980s, and I can remember the long visa appointment lines outside of our offices at Hsin Yi Road. Those days are over. Today, we have moved to a new $255 million-dollar office in Neihu, and most Taiwan travelers can go to the United States visa-free. AIT still processes about 34,000 visas each year, and almost half of these are student visas.
According to the 2019 Open Doors Report (https://www.iie.org/opendoors) released earlier this week, the United States remains the number one overseas destination for Taiwan students, and, the number of Taiwan students in the United States has increased for the 4th consecutive year in a row. During the 2018-2019 academic year there were 23,369 Taiwan students at U.S. institutions, up 4.1 per cent from the previous year. Taiwan remains the seventh largest source of international students in the United States, ahead of Japan, Brazil, and Mexico.
Today, Taiwan’s Fulbright Program, managed by the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange and led by Executive Director Randall Nadeau, is one of the largest Fulbright Programs in the world, and AIT is working with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide even more support for this important program. In addition, Taiwan has committed to expanding English language opportunities for students across the island, and AIT is supporting these efforts through the State Department’s English Language Fellow and English Language Specialist Programs.
I am also pleased to see more and more students from the United States coming to Taiwan to study Mandarin. Last month, I joined Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. HSU Szu-Chien (徐斯俭) and representatives of Chinese language programs from 12 leading U.S. universities for the opening ceremony of the Chinese Flagship Taiwan Center at National Taiwan University. Taiwan is an excellent place to study, and we look forward to welcoming more and more U.S. students to Taiwan through the Flagship program and other exchanges, like the National Security Language Initiative for Youth or the Critical Language Scholarship Program.
One of the new people-to-people initiatives that I am most excited about is the Talent Circulation Alliance (https://www.talentcirculationalliance.org/), a new public-private partnership that we launched with Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs earlier this year. The goal of the TCA is to cultivate a deep pool of capable, internationally connected, and digitally savvy professionals to advance innovation and prosperity in Taiwan, the United States, and across the Indo Pacific Region. Vigorous talent circulations in the free and open Indo-Pacific will keep both investment and talent firmly anchored in democratic societies that share values of transparency, rule of law and human rights.
In sum, people-to-people ties between the United States and Taiwan are strong and growing. We look forward to building on these ties through even more cooperation with our many partners in Taiwan.
Introduction to the Fourth Digital Dialogue
Throughout 2019 and in cooperation with the Taiwan authorities, AIT has been welcoming the thoughts and ideas of Taiwan’s general public through the Digital Dialogue series (https://www.ait.org.tw/ait-at-40/digital-dialogues/). After my speech today, we will officially launch our fourth Digital Dialogue. This Dialogue asks the people of Taiwan to respond to the question: “What should the United States and Taiwan do to promote even closer ties between our people?” To participate, simply go to the AIT website and search for “Digital Dialogues.” At the end of January, we will hold a special forum to discuss the suggestions we receive.
To close, I would like to underscore the importance of the people-to-people dimension in the U.S.-Taiwan relationship. People-to-people ties are the connective tissue that binds together the United States and Taiwan. Bonds are formed through tourism, immigration, marriage, academic and professional exchanges and modern communication technologies that not only keep our people close but also transmit our shared values. Taken together, these ties, more than any other, are the real foundation for the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.
Thank you. |
