Ambassador Bi-khim Hsiao Invited to Attend
2021 Annual Meeting of
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
Ambassador Bi-khim Hsiao was invited by American Legislative Exchange Council CEO Lisa B. Nelson to attend the ALEC 2021 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah from July 28th to July 30th.
In her speeches, Ambassador Hsiao expressed sincere gratitude to the members of ALEC for presenting the International Leadership Pioneer Award to President Tsai Ing-wen in December of 2020, recognizing her extraordinary international leadership and strong commitment to free markets, contribution to freedom in both Taiwan and abroad. Amb. Hsiao also thanked ALEC for its ratification of the “Resolution Supporting the United States in Signing a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with Taiwan” this past January, which would aid Taiwan in diversifying its trade market. Gratitude was also expressed to various state legislatures for passing resolutions in support of strengthening the economic and strategic partnership between Taiwan and the United States.
Addressing state legislators, Amb. Hsiao highlighted the importance of education exchange, especially in Mandarin language education. She pointed out that Taiwan, a success that respect freedom of speech, is a safe option for American students to study abroad, and she looks forward to broadening bilateral teacher exchanges in the near future. In the face of the challenge of the pandemic, people in Taiwan are very grateful to the U.S. government and people for the timely donation of 2.5 million doses of vaccine to Taiwan. She elaborated on the partnership between Taiwan and the U.S. with respect to trade, security, and democratic values and on the direction of future cooperation. She urged ALEC and all state legislators to continue supporting the robust Taiwan-U.S. relationship in the years to come.
Among ALEC’s 2,000 plus members, there are about a quarter of current state legislators from across the United States along with private corporate members. It is one of the largest state legislator organizations in the United States. For years, ALEC has passed model policy in support of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.
