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Taiwan Travel Act

On January 13, 2017, i.e. the very same day that Taiwan’s democratically elected president Tsai Ing-wen stopped over in San Francisco on her way home from South America, members of the U.S. House of Representatives Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Brad Sherman (D-CA), plus chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) introduced the “Taiwan Travel Act.” (HR535) The binding Taiwan Travel Act legislation declares that “the United States Government should encourage visits between the United States and Taiwan at all levels.” Similar legislation had been introduced in the House and the Senate in September 2016.

The "Taiwan Travel Act" was introduced in the U.S. Senate on May 16, 2017 by U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Gary Peters (D-MI.)b (S1051)

The “Taiwan Travel Act” is binding legislation that concludes that “the United States Government should encourage visits between the United States and Taiwan at all levels.”

The bill states that Congress finds that: “Since the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act, relations between the United States and Taiwan have suffered from a lack of communication due to the self-imposed restrictions that the United States maintains on high-level visits with Taiwan.”

It concludes that: “the United States Government should encourage visits between the United States and Taiwan at all levels.”

On June 15, 2017, the House Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs unanimously passed the Taiwan Travel Act.

FAPA President Peter Chen stated at the time: “We let the unelected leaders of China come to DC whenever they want to and give them the red carpet treatment at the White House with a 21 gun salute. But we shun the democratically elected leaders of long-time ally Taiwan. This is American soil. So it should be the prerogative of the United States ONLY to decide who can visit Washington DC, not the prerogative of the communist leaders in Beijing. With the new administration in place in the U.S. and in Taiwan the time is now for the U.S. to enable Taiwan’s president (among others) to come to Washington DC – without restrictions.”

On June 16, 2017, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) expressed its gratitude and welcomed introduction of this bill and called upon the United States to further enhance bilateral exchanges to deepen bilateral relations.