"Taiwan Travel Bill" Would Give Us “Face” But Involves Perilous Risks

  "Taiwan Travel Bill" Would Give Us “Face” But Involves Perilous Risks

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

January 14, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

The US House of Representatives recently passed the Taiwan Travel Bill, which would lift the ban on the exchange of visits between high-ranking officials of the United States and Taiwan; the bill will require further action in the US Senate. If it is passed in the Senate, besides indicating US friendship for us, it would also be a diplomatic breakthrough; however, if operated improperly, Taiwan would become a pawn for the United States, and the new legislation would be full of perilous risks.

Since the United States broke diplomatic ties with the Republic of China in 1979, although there are no specific provisions banning the president, vice president, premier, foreign minister and defense minister from visiting the United States, in diplomatic practice, they have not been able to visit Washington, D.C. When the United States sends officials to visit Taiwan, it has avoided sensitive defense and state department officials, focusing mainly on exchanges between commerce, education and other departments. This bill is similar in nature to the earlier adopted "National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)" calling for the exchange of ports of call visits between the U.S. and Taiwan warships and the exchange of visits between high-level defense officials; they all express the sense of Congress, leaving to the discretion of the executive branch. However, the "Taiwan Travel Bill" is far more important than the NDAA, because this would be the second U.S. domestic law exclusively enacted for Taiwan after the "Taiwan Relations Act."

This bill has only been passed by the US House of Representatives, awaiting passage in the US Senate, and a unanimous version through consultations of both houses, which would then be sent to President Trump for signing into law. In the eyes of Beijing, once the "Taiwan Travel Law" is enacted, it would directly challenge the Mainland’s bottom line of "one China." The Global Times warned in an editorial that once the Taiwan Travel Bill becomes law, it would inevitably help China to make a determination to "solve the Taiwan question," engaging in the full-scale oppression of the Taiwan independence movement, at which time, the Taiwan Strait would witness “the earth shake and the mountains rock.” The PRC’s Foreign Ministry also issued a statement urging the United States not to conduct any official exchanges with Taiwan and not to send the wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces.

The Tsai government has been striving to cultivate US-Taiwan bilateral relations, but always relying on the United States, it would encounter risks without reaping benefits; this would be a most serious taboo in diplomacy and national security.

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