A bill was introduced in the US Senate this week to negotiate renaming Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington as the “Taiwan representative office,” National Review reported yesterday.
The Taiwan Representative Office Act, introduced by US senators John Curtis and Jeff Merkley, would direct the US secretary of state to negotiate the rechristening of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO).
The bill would also require US government officials to change all references in documents from TECRO to the new name.
Photo: Taipei Times
The legislation underscores the US’ commitment to Taiwan’s democracy and enhances clarity in the US-Taiwan relationship, Curtis said in a statement.
The choice to use “Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” in the office's name was to avoid offending China, he said.
“The United States shouldn’t tolerate pressure from China to undermine the Taiwanese people,” he said. “Instead, it should stand by its democratic allies and friends around the world facing pressure and coercion from authoritarian regimes.”
The act elevates the US’ relationship with Taiwan while maintaining that Washington’s “one China policy” is not to be confused with Beijing's “one China principle,” he said.
“By renaming TECRO as the Taiwan representative office, our bill acknowledges the reality that this office represents the people of Taiwan, not just the economic interests of the city of Taipei,” he said.
“Taiwan’s democracy is vital to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, and the United States must continue pursuing opportunities that strengthen our partnership with Taiwan,” Merkley said in the statement.
Vincent Chao (趙怡翔), a former TECRO political director, told National Review that the proposed nomenclature change would be consistent with efforts to “push back against Chinese actions that degrade Taiwan’s international space” and is in line with US policy that has long used the name Taiwan, including in the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
“I think that this bill would be welcomed by the people of Taiwan and I think certainly there’s a hope that the sentiments expressed in this bill would be taken into consideration by the executive branch,” Chao was quoted as saying by the US magazine.
China has previously lashed out at countries that use Taiwan’s name for the country’s diplomatic outposts. In 2021, Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a representative office that used the country’s name, rather than that of its capital city. The Chinese government responded with economic reprisals.
In the same year, the administration of former US president Joe Biden reportedly considered renaming TECRO to Taiwan representative office, but the change was never implemented.
In 2023 and last year, similar bills were introduced in the US House of Representatives and the Senate, but did not gain enough traction to pass in either chamber.
Curtis, who was then a member of the House, put forth one of the bills, while then-US senator Marco Rubio sponsored the other during the final two years of Biden's presidency.
Taiwan's representative offices in countries with which it does not have diplomatic ties are typically named the Taipei economic and cultural office or the Taipei representative office, in keeping with the host countries' preference to avoid any references that would imply Taiwan is a separate country from China.
As the US and Taiwan, officially named the Republic of China, ended official ties in 1979, the latter's Washington office has been called TECRO.
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