The US government this week issued its annual report on the diplomatic niceties of dealing with Taiwan — and stumbled right into a protocol blunder, as the US Department of Homeland Security was caught referring to Taiwan on its Web site as a “province of China.”
Bob Yang (楊英育), president of the Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs, wrote to US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano complaining: “It is of course incontestable reality that Taiwan is NOT a province of China.
“Taiwan is a sovereign independent country with its own elected president,” his message read.
“I hereby respectfully request that the Bureau [sic] of Homeland Security adopt the US national policies and correct this factual error in all computers and strike all ‘Province of China’ references in the system when referring to Taiwan,” he said.
An embarrassed department official replied: “Thank you for alerting us to an erroneous characterization of Taiwan on a Department of Homeland Security Web site.”
He said the department had “immediately initiated action” to correct its mistake.
By coincidence, the error was made just as the US State Department issued its yearly guidelines on contacts with Taiwan.
The four-page memorandum detailing exactly how all US government officials should act when they become involved with Taiwan, states clearly that the US government refers to Taiwan simply as “Taiwan.”
It adds: “The US Government does not refer to Taiwan as the Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan or a country.”
Just how or why the Department of Homeland Security made the mistake in the first place remains a mystery.
Among the State Department rules confirmed this week:
Meetings between US government officials and Taiwanese authorities outside the US must be held outside government offices, in private rooms or restaurants.
US embassy personnel can attend private parties given by Taiwanese representatives in their homes, but not in their offices.
Representatives of Taiwan may not be invited to US functions held in official US offices, but it is permissible to invite them to parties held in private homes or cafes.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)