A bill that seeks to encourage visits between Taiwan and the US at all levels was on Thursday passed by a US House of Representatives subcommittee in the first step toward its legislation.
The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific unanimously passed the Taiwan travel act bill, which was initiated by US Representative Steve Chabot, and cosponsored by US representatives Brad Sherman and Ed Royce, chairman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“The United States government should encourage visits between the United States and Taiwan at all levels,” the bill states.
Photo: AP
It says that since the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) in 1979, ties between Taiwan and the US have suffered from insufficient high-level communication due to the self-imposed restrictions that the US maintains on visits by high-ranking officials.
The bill, which seeks to eliminate the restrictions, is to be sent to the US House Committe on Foreign Affairs for approval.
A similar bill with the same title was also introduced to the US Senate. It was initiated by Republican senators Marco Rubio, Jim Inhofe and Cory Gardner; and Democratic senators Sherrod Brown, Bob Menendez and Gary Peters.
Before the bill can become law, it must be passed by both the House and Senate, then signed by US President Donald Trump.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday expressed her appreciation to US officials, including US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, for their support of Taiwan.
“Over past few days, we’ve seen US officials, including SecState Tillerson, speak in support of #TaiwanRelationsAct & Taiwan-US relations,” Tsai tweeted.
Tillerson told a US House committee hearing that while the US remains committed to its “one China” policy, it fully intends to fulfill all commitments to Taiwan under the TRA.
The TRA is a US law under which the US is committed to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons.
Tsai also expressed appreciation for the subcommittee’s unanimous passage of the bill.
“Taiwan appreciates continued support of friends in US, Japan & others, & will continue to work together for peace & stability in region,” Tsai tweeted.
The US allows authoritarian Chinese leaders to visit Washington at any time and gives them a red-carpet welcome, but has shunned democratically elected leaders from its long-term friend Taiwan, Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) president Peter Chen (陳正義) said in a news release.
Only Washington, not Beijing, has the right to decide who can visit the US, Chen said.
With relatively new governments in office in Taiwan and the US, it is an opportune time to change the rules on visits by Taiwanese officials, he said.
TAIWAN PROTECTION MEASURE: US Army General Charles Flynn would not say where in the Asia-Pacific the missiles would be sent, but only that they would arrive in 2024 The US is to send medium-range missiles including the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) and Tomahawk to the Asia-Pacific next year to deter a Chinese attack on Taiwan, US military news Web site Defense One reported. The report cited comments US Army General Charles Flynn made during the annual Halifax International Security Forum on Nov. 19. “We have tested them and we have a battery or two of them today,” Flynn was quoted as saying. “In [20]24. We intend to deploy that system in your region. I’m not going to say where and when. But I will just say that we will
LOYALTY: The 10 active and retired soldiers betrayed the nation and its people by leaking and passing on military secrets to China, the High Prosecutors’ Office said Ten former and current military officers were yesterday indicted on charges of spying for China, including two who allegedly filmed themselves pledging loyalty to Beijing. The High Prosecutors’ Office requested life imprisonment for the suspects in light of the severity of the crime. The 10 active-duty and retired officers included members of the 601st Brigade of the Aviation Special Forces comprising attack helicopter squadrons and elite combat units in charge of defending northern Taiwan, including Taipei. The other suspects came from Huadong Defense Command, in charge of defending the eastern coast; Kinmen Defense Command, in charge of defending Kinmen and Matsu; and one
NO FREE LUNCH: Taiwanese joining the trips to China met TAO and United Front Work officials who urged them to vote for candidates who support closer ties with Beijing The Ciaotou Prosecutors’ Office in Kaohsiung yesterday released two suspects on bail who have been accused of recruiting Taiwanese to join tours to China funded by Beijing and in which they were urged to vote for pan-blue candidates in January’s presidential and legislative elections. The pan-blue camp generally refers to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the People First Party, the New Party and the Young China Party, which support closer relations with China. Prosecutors said that a man, surnamed Cheng (鄭), and a woman, surnamed Yeh (葉), who are members of the China Pan-Blue Association, recruited Taiwanese tourists to join tours arranged
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday slammed a proposal by New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, to permit a “significant number” of Chinese students to study and work in Taiwan, saying it would be detrimental to young Taiwanese. At an event on Monday hosted by nine major industrial and business groups, Hou said that if elected, he would reinitiate cross-strait dialogue on the premise that Taiwan’s dignity would not be compromised and that the talks would be held in good faith. The talks would include lifting a ban on Chinese tour groups and
RSS