The government yesterday welcomed US President Donald Trump’s signing into law of the Taiwan Travel Act, which pledges to deepen the mutually beneficial partnership between the two nations.
Trump signed the act on Friday, when it went into effect. It aims to allow high-level visits between Taiwanese and US government officials.
The act, which serves as a follow-up to the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, allows “officials at all levels of the United States Government, including Cabinet-level national security officials, general officers and other executive branch officials, to travel to Taiwan to meet their Taiwanese counterparts.”
Photo: CNA
It also allows “high-level officials of Taiwan to enter the United States, under conditions which demonstrate appropriate respect for the dignity of such officials, and to meet with officials of the United States, including officials from the Department of State and the Department of Defense and other Cabinet agencies.”
The bill was introduced in January last year by US Representative Steve Chabot, and cosponsored by US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce and US Representative Brad Sherman.
It was submitted to Trump on Monday last week following its unanimous passage in the US House on Jan. 9 and the US Senate on Feb. 28.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it sincerely welcomed the act, and expressed gratitude for the goodwill and support by the US executive and legislative branches.
“The act encourages the US government to increase the level of official exchanges and communications between Taipei and Washington, paving the way for strengthened Taiwan-US ties,” the ministry said.
The Taiwan-US relationship has grown stronger over the years, particularly after Trump’s inauguration in January last year, thanks to frequent visits to Taiwan by senior US officials to engage in business, cultural, educational and Global Cooperation and Training Framework events, the ministry said.
The framework was signed by the two sides in 2015 to lay out plans for cooperation in areas including international humanitarian assistance, public health, environmental protection, energy and technology.
“We will continue to keep in close contact with Washington and deepen our cooperative partnership in all areas and at all levels based on the principles of mutual trust and reciprocity,” the ministry said.
Presidential Office spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) also thanked Trump for signing the act into law, saying that Taipei would cooperate closely with the executive branch of the US government to develop stronger ties.
“The US is our important ally. We sincerely thank [it for] the firm support that has been shown to us from various sectors of US society,” Lin said.
Taiwan would continue to work with the US to build a solid cooperative partnership to maintain regional peace and stability, Lin added.
The act describes Taiwan as “a beacon of democracy” in Asia, and states that “Taiwan’s democratic achievements inspire many countries and people in the region.”
In Washington, Stanley Kao (高碩泰), Taiwan’s representative to the U.S., said he is looking forward to more interaction between the two countries.
The representative office is making it its mission to deepen Taiwan-U.S. relations through these potential high-level official exchange visits, he noted.
Senator Jim Inhofe welcomed the move, saying that high-level meetings “remain extremely valuable, especially as China continues their unprecedented reclamation in the South China Sea.”
He described the legislation as “an important tool as we continue to ensure Taiwan has the ability to defend itself and remains a committed US partner in the region.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, expressing Beijing’s strong dissatisfaction with Trump’s action, was quoted by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency as saying: “The relevant clauses of the Taiwan Travel Act severely violate the ‘one China’ principle.”
The spokesperson went on to urge the US to “stop pursuing any official ties with Taiwan or improving its current relations with Taiwan in any substantive way.”
Additional reporting by AFP and CNA
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a