Legislation to end the official restrictions that have limited government contacts between the US and Taiwan was to be introduced in the US House of Representative yesterday by four of Taipei's strongest supporters in Congress.
The four planned to tag the bill as an amendment to a measure funding the State Department and other agencies for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, which will be debated on the House floor this week.
If approved, the amendment would end decades of rules that have made it extremely difficult for US and Taiwan officials to communicate directly and that bar US officials from attending such affairs as the Double Ten National Day dinners held by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO).
It would also end the ban on visits by US officials to facilities owned by Taiwan and visits by Taiwan's representatives to the State Department or White House.
The Taipei Times has learned that the amendment will be offered by representatives Thomas Tancredo, Robert Andrews, Steve Chabot and Sherrod Brown. Chabot and Brown are co-chairmen of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus.
The measure would prevent the administration from spending any money to enforce the provisions of a Feb. 2, 2001 State Department memorandum, which has governed all contacts between the two countries under the Bush administration.
Such a legislative tack would effectively nullify the memo and its curbs, the sponsors said.
While the administration is believed to think that the 2001 memo actually expanded contacts between the US and Taiwan compared to previous administrations, Tancredo's office, which learned of the memo's existence only recently, believes the document represents unacceptable curbs on communication and relations between Washington and Taipei.
Given the House's recent willingness to adopt bills favorable to Taiwan, the four members are optimistic that their amendment will be approved.
According to the 2001 memo, the following rules apply:
Meetings between Taiwanese officials, lawmakers and politicians and US officials cannot take place in the State Department, White House, or Old Executive Office Building.
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) must sponsor and coordinate all US-Taiwan meetings between officials at the policy level (deputy assistant secretary or above).
No senior US official is allowed to attend the Oct. 10 celebrations. This includes "no official" of the State Department, White House, Pentagon, CIA or other foreign policy agency, nor senior officials of any other US government branch.
Taiwan's Washington-area mansion, Twin Oaks, which is used for ceremonial functions, is off-limits to all executive branch personnel, although officials may go to "social functions" at TECRO officials' homes.
All US government officials traveling to Taiwan must get special approval and when they travel, they do so as "consultants to AIT." State and defense department officials above the rank of office director or colonel (Navy captain) cannot travel to Taiwan. Government employees must travel on a tourist passport and any official above assistant secretary or three-star flag officer making a purely personal trip must still get special approval.
US government departments cannot correspond directly with Taiwan. They must do so through AIT, usually in the form of a letter from AIT to TECRO.
Such letters must be of "plain bond" and cannot include the addressee's title. This applies also to Taiwanese legislators and party members.
Thank-you notes can be sent on unofficial stationary and in plain envelopes.
Under the guidelines, "the US government does not refer to Taiwan as the `Republic of China' or the `Republic of China on Taiwan.' Neither does the US government refer to Taiwan as a `country' or `government.'" It refers to Taiwan as Taiwan and its government as "the Taiwan authorities."
While several bills in the past have sought to end many of these restrictions, this is believed to be the first time that the attempt was made through the appropriations process.
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