US President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether to veto or sign into law the Taiwan Travel Act, which would promote meetings and visits between high-ranking US and Taiwanese officials, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday.
“The final decision hasn’t been made — we’ll keep you guys posted,” Huckabee Sanders told a news briefing in response to a question on Trump’s plan as yesterday’s deadline approached.
The bill was presented to Trump on March 5, after clearing the US House of Representatives on Jan. 9 and the US Senate on Feb. 28, US congressional records showed.
Based on US legislative rules, it would become law as soon as it is signed by the president or automatically become law after 10 days, excluding Sundays, if he does not sign.
The bill would be struck down only if Trump vetoes it, but analysts say the chances of that are slim, given that it was passed unanimously by both the Senate and the House.
Separately, US Pacific Command (UPSACOM) head Admiral Harry Harris Jr on Thursday said that the command would continue to support Taiwan’s efforts to increase its self-defense capabilities through regular arms sales and military training.
Harris told the US Senate Armed Services Committee about the ever-growing importance of Taiwan’s defense capabilities in the face of China’s growing military spending and capabilities.
In line with the Taiwan Relations Act, “UPSACOM will continue supporting Taiwan’s efforts to develop a credible, resilient and cost-effective deterrent and self-defense capability,” he said, emphasizing regular arms sales and training for Taiwan’s military.
Harris urged the US to continue helping Taiwan enhance its defense capabilities, while showing resolve that “any attempt by China to force reunification on the people of Taiwan is unacceptable.”
He listed recent sales of a number of weapons, including anti-ballistic missiles, anti-aircraft weapons and surveillance radar, as helping to increase Taiwan’s defense capabilities.
In addition, Taiwan and the US have made it clear since Trump’s inauguration last year that they are interested in maintaining regular arm sales, he added.
Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) on the same day reiterated the nation’s interest in buying F-35 jets from the US.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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