TAIWAN TRAVEL ACT:The US allows authoritarian PRC leaders to visit Washington, but shuns Taiwan’s democratically elected officials, FAPA president Peter Chen said
Taipei Times
Date: Jun 17, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA
A bill that seeks to encourage visits between Taiwan and the US at all levels was on Thursday passed
From left, US Representative Steve Chabot, then-Republican US vice presidential candidate Mike Pence and Pence’s wife, Karen, wave to the crowd during an election campaign rally in Mason, Ohio, on Oct. 17 last year. Photo: AP
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.
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. [FULL STORY]
