A tourist takes pictures of the 101 Tower in Taipei in 2013. Policy experts say the Taiwan Travel Act is a provocation against China, as more visits by senior U.S. officials to Taiwan could help boost the island’s international profile.
Mandy Cheng/AFP/Getty Images
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Mandy Cheng/AFP/Getty Images
A tourist takes pictures of the 101 Tower in Taipei in 2013. Policy experts say the Taiwan Travel Act is a provocation against China, as more visits by senior U.S. officials to Taiwan could help boost the island’s international profile.
Mandy Cheng/AFP/Getty Images
President Trump last month quietly signed a bill encouraging U.S. officials to visit Taiwan, angering China amid rising trade tensions.
China considers Taiwan a rogue province that ignores China’s sovereignty, and for decades has insisted that other countries abide by the “one China” policy and do not recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty.The Taiwan Travel Act, signed by Trump after unanimous Senate and House votes, is another stimulus in the ongoing trade dispute between China and the U.S.
A shift in U.S. policy could also affect North Korea, as the U.S. still needs China’s help to resolve tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
The legislation is not legally binding, but policy experts say it is a provocation for China as more visits by senior U.S. officials to Taiwan, and vice versa, could help boost the island’s international profile. The Chinese also see the law as an attempt by the United States to gain leverage in trade, said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The Chinese think the US is just using Taiwan as a card to try to pressure China on trade,” she told now herePeter O’Dowd. “But I think what the US really wants is more protection for Taiwan. We want to give Taiwan more dignity, we do want to strengthen Taiwan’s security. “
When the Taipei office moves to the new building in June, U.S. cabinet-level officials are expected to lead the reopening of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. embassy. Not many U.S. officials have visited the country, but Gina McCarthy, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration, did in 2014.
Douglas Parr, who was the U.S. representative to Taiwan from 2002 to 2006, told Reuters that the U.S. did not often “approve these trips because the policy judgment is that the costs of relations with China will outweigh the benefits of relations with Taiwan.”
Glaser said China may view the travel bill as a violation of three joint communiqués between the two governments, in which the United States recognizes Beijing’s position that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China.
The agreement also said the United States “will retain only unofficial relations with Taiwan,” Glaser explained. “However, I would say that Washington and Beijing always have different definitions of what is unofficial.”
The United States has no official relationship with Taiwan, but it does help the country with its defenses and provides most of the island’s weapons. Taiwan’s foreign ministry called Trump’s signing a “friendly move” and expressed interest in developing ties with the United States, Reuters reported.
Relations between Taiwan and China have become more hostile since the Taiwan Independence Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2016. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday urged Taiwan’s business community to condemn the idea of Taiwan’s independence, state media reported.
“Taiwan’s business friends should stand up, firmly uphold the ‘1992 Consensus’, oppose ‘Taiwan independence’, and firmly promote peace and stability in cross-strait relations,” Xi told the chairman of the Cross-Strait Trade Promotion Foundation. China and Taiwan.
In fact, Taiwan’s export-dependent economy could take a serious hit if the U.S. and China start a trade war. China is Taiwan’s largest trading partner, with nearly 30 percent of its exports — a key part of the tech industry’s global supply chain — going to China.
The appointment of former ambassador John Bolton as Trump’s new national security adviser would also further complicate the situation.Bolton writes Wall Street Journal In January, the United States should “play the Taiwan card” against China, suggesting that if China does not back down in the South China Sea, the United States will grant Taiwan full diplomatic status.
Earlier this week, China reportedly placed communications jamming equipment in the South China Sea to maintain its dominance in the region. Glaser said the Chinese could use force against Taiwan if they felt threatened.
“If the Chinese think their leadership is under a lot of nationalist pressure and they are losing the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, they may decide to attack Taiwan,” she said. “And the U.S. defending Taiwan will be very, very challenging because we are so far away and we have a limited number of troops in Japan and elsewhere in the region.”
