PRESSURE TACTICS:The Chinese ambassador to the US said the Taiwan travel act and Taiwan security enhancement act bills had ‘crossed a red line’ and were a ‘provocation’
Taipei Times
Date: Oct 14, 2017
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter
Prior to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ passage of a bill that would relax
Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai speaks at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York on Sept. 20. Photo: Bloomberg
restrictions on mutual visits of high-level officials from Taipei and Washington, China allegedly sent a letter to the US Congress warning against “crossing a red line,” according to the Washington Post.
In a hearing in Washington on Thursday, the committee unanimously passed the Taiwan travel act bill, which seeks to encourage visits between Taiwan and the US at all levels at a time when bilateral ties “have suffered from insufficient high-level communication due to the self-imposed restrictions that the US maintains on high-level visits with Taiwan” since the 1979 enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act.
Although Chinese pressure about Taiwan has become commonplace, Josh Rogin of the Washington Post said the article published earlier on Thursday that a threat-laden letter sent by Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai (崔天凱) to leaders of the US House’s and Senate’s foreign relations and armed serves committees in August was considered “unusual and out of line.” [FULL STORY]
