The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, that a new program will place U.S. federal employees within Taiwan's government offices and other organizations for up to one year. The initiative, named the Taiwan Fellowship Program, is designed to build U.S. expertise on Taiwan and strengthen the partnership between Washington and Taipei.
The program was established under the Taiwan Fellowship Act of 2023. It follows a model similar to the Mike Mansfield Fellowship, a program created by the U.S. Congress in 1994 to facilitate professional exchanges between U.S. federal employees and the government of Japan. A memorandum of understanding for the new Taiwan program was signed in the United States on Tuesday, November 10, 2026.
According to a statement from the AIT, which serves as the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei, participants will first complete up to one year of intensive Mandarin language training and studies. Following this, the fellows are expected to work for up to one year in Taiwan’s parliamentary offices, ministries, other public agencies, or non-governmental organizations. AIT Managing Director Ingrid Larson stated that the program reflects "strong bipartisan support" for U.S.-Taiwan relations.
The AIT did not disclose the specific number of federal employees who will participate in the program each year. The initiative aims to create a cadre of federal professionals with specific language skills and cultural knowledge. While the United States maintains no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, it remains the island's primary international supporter and arms supplier, a situation that the Chinese government maintains is its most sensitive diplomatic issue.
The scale of the program in terms of total funding or the specific count of households affected was not reported, as the AIT did not provide these figures. However, the placement of U.S. officials inside Taiwan's ministries represents a shift in how the two governments interact on a personnel level. For the broader U.S. workforce and taxpayers, the program establishes a mechanism for embedding American personnel within the administrative structure of a territory that China claims as its own.
The program’s implementation arrives during a period of diplomatic activity involving the U.S. and China. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet next week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders summit in Shenzhen. While the AIT has not announced a specific start date for the first class of fellows to arrive in Taipei, the signing of the memorandum on November 10 marks the commencement of the program's organizational phase. Participation will likely be open to employees across various federal agencies, though the specific application deadlines have not yet been published.