The US Senate issued the Taiwan Travel Act, promoting relations with self-governing Taiwan. Highlighting this fact, yesterday a ‘strongly dissatisfied’ China initiated an official protest with the US.
Following its approval in the House of Representatives in January, the bill has been issued to boost visits between the two countries. The bill is currently awaiting the consent of the US President Donald Trump to become a law.
The bill seeks to be a US policy so that top Taiwanese officials can enter the US, meet the US authorised personnel and trade in the country.
Washington severed formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, after acknowledging that the Communist mainland rulers in Beijing are the sole government of ‘One China’.
At a press conference on March 1, 2018, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying‘s said: “Some of the act’s clauses, though not legally binding, still severely violate the one-China principle and the three joint communiqués between China and the US. China is strongly dissatisfied with that and also firmly opposes it. We have lodged stern representations with the US side.
“The one-China principle is the political foundation of the China-US relationship. We urge the US side to adhere to the one-China policy and honor the commitments it made in the three joint communiqués, stop pursuing any official ties with Taiwan or improving its current relations with Taiwan in any substantive way. It must handle Taiwan-related issues properly and cautiously so as to avoid causing any major disruption or damage to the China-US relations.”