An innocuous-seeming law causes a ruckus

FEW pieces of legislation sound more anodyne than the Taiwan Travel Act. The bill, which both houses of Congress passed unanimously and President Donald Trump signed into law on March 16th, aims only to 'encourage visits between officials from the United States and Taiwan at all levels'. Yet it risks triggering a diplomatic brouhaha. China regards the prospect of visits between American and Taiwanese officials as a violation of America's 'one-China policy', under which America pledged to maintain only unofficial relations with a place that China regards as a renegade province. 'We urge the US side to correct its mistake,' says a spokesman from China's foreign ministry.Steve Chabot, a Republican congressman from Ohio and author of the bill, says that his legislation has 'no provocative intent'. Taiwan, after all, is America's 11th-biggest trading partner, outstripping Brazil. And the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 commits America to helping Taiwan defend itself. Mr Chabot worries that insufficient communication between the two...Continue reading
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