The administration of US President George W. Bush on Thursday came out in opposition to a measure passed by the US House of Representatives that would lift a series of curbs on contacts between US and Taiwan officials, arguing that the measure would hurt the president's ability to conduct its foreign policy.
The statement came as the House gave final approval to the measure, by overwhelmingly passing the government agency funding bill -- to which the Taiwan measure was attached as an amendment -- by a 393-23 vote.
The bill now goes to the Senate for more deliberation. Both chambers have to agree to the Taiwan provision, and the president has to sign the bill with the measure intact, for it to become law.
"The administration is opposed to this measure because it interferes with the president's prerogative to conduct our foreign relations," a State Department official said.
The official quoted the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which he said "has served as the foundation for the profound and wide-ranging unofficial relations between the peoples of the United States and Taiwan."
He said that the act "specifically authorizes the president `to prescribe such rules and regulations as he may deem appropriate to carry out the purposes' of the law."
Congressional sources, however, dispute this statement, saying that the US Constitution makes it clear that Congress has the sole power to decide how government money is spent.
In comments on the House floor in defense of the amendment when it came up for a House vote on Wednesday, Thomas Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado who is the Taiwan amendment's main sponsor, described the rules covering US-Taiwan contacts as "arbitrary and archaic." The curbs "range from just silly to downright absurd," he said.
The guidelines that the measure would invalidate, which were contained in a 2001 State Department memorandum to other government agencies, "raise serious questions about who is really in charge and calling the shots when it comes to the US policy regarding Taiwan. Is it the Congress or is it the Communist government in Beijing?" he said.
Frank Wolf, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee subcommittee handling the overall funding bill and a Republican from Virginia, said, "maybe we should have the Taiwan regulations apply to the embassy in Beijing and reverse it."
Steve Chabot, a sponsor of the bill, co-chairman of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus and Republican from Ohio, called Taiwan one of Washington's "strongest and most loyal allies," and praised its democracy and recognition of individual liberties and human rights.
He called the guideline restrictions "counterproductive," and complained that Chinese leaders are welcomed to the White House while President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was barred from transiting through the contiguous US states this spring.
The other two sponsors of the bipartisan amendment, Sherrod Brown and Robert Andrews, are Democrats. The two, along with Tancredo and Chabot, are among the staunchest Taiwan supporters in the House.
Wolf, a long-time critic of China's human rights record, is also a Republican.
The measure would prohibit the administration from spending money to enforce the restrictions, which, among other things, bar Taiwanese officials from stepping inside the State Department and White House, prevent US officials from visiting Taiwan's Twin Oaks mansion, put Taiwan off-limits to senior military personnel, make it illegal for US and Taiwan officials to communicate directly in many circumstances and even dictate the form of thank-you notes between the two sides.
The curbs were first put in place after Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1978 in order to avoid offending Chinese sensibilities about the "unofficial" US-Taiwan ties.
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