The US’ Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019 was on Monday delivered to US President Donald Trump to be signed into law after it was passed by both chambers of the US Congress.
According to US legislative procedure, a bill passed by the Congress must be presented to the president, who then has 10 days to consider whether to approve it.
Bills that are neither signed nor vetoed by the president within 10 days automatically become law, even without the president’s signature.
Excluding holidays, Trump has until Thursday next week to sign or veto the act.
The US Senate on Wednesday last week unanimously passed the act that aims to shore up up Taiwan’s international presence.
According to Senate rules, unanimous consensus is a situation in which no senator present objects to a proposal and a senator may request unanimous consent on the floor to set aside a specified rule or procedure so as to expedite proceedings.
The US House of Representatives on March voted 415-0 in favor of the act.
The bill was introduced to the Senate by US Senator Cory Gardner in May last year, while US Representative John Curtis, a Republican, put forth a similar version to the House in October.
The act authorizes the US Department of State to consider “reducing its economic, security and diplomatic engagements with nations that take serious or significant actions to undermine Taiwan.”
It also calls on the US government to help Taiwan gain participation in international organizations, either as a member or an observer, and to express support for Taiwan’s international participation whenever it has discussions with China.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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