US house committees pass 14 pro-Taiwan bills

US house committees pass 14 pro-Taiwan bills

2023-03-02

President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday received the founder of the Washington-based think tank the Heritage Foundation at the presidential office. Edwin Feulner invited Tsai to visit Washington, saying that bipartisan support for Taiwan was high. In the past week alone, three house committees have passed at least 14 pro-Taiwan Bills. Though they have yet to become law, one Taiwan lawmaker says it’s a sign of the tremendous support for Taiwan in the U.S. congress.

Heritage Foundation founder Edwin Feulner greets President Tsai Ing-wen warmly. His foundation’s latest Index of Economic Freedom ranked Taiwan’s economy as the fourth freest in the world. That’s Taiwan’s best showing in the report.

Tsai Ing-wen
President
We hope that Taiwan and the U.S. will sign a bilateral trade agreement in the future, as well as an agreement to prevent double taxation, so that the two sides can have a deeper relationship on economic and trade cooperation.

Edwin Feulner
Heritage Foundation founder
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and the delegation caused, some concern in the Indo-Pacific region by other people. But for us it is a sign of continued bipartisan support for the freedom, the independence, and the vigor of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship. Suggesting that instead of Kevin McCartney coming here, you should come to Washington.

Feulner invited President Tsai to visit Washington, saying that he felt a strong support for Taiwan across party lines. In recent days, the situation in the Taiwan Strait has been a hotly debated topic in the U.S. Congress.

On Tuesday, the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed eight pro-Taiwan bills. One of them was the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the U.S. Department of State to review its guidelines for interacting with Taiwan on a regular basis, and have more thorough supervision on the development of Taiwan-U.S. ties. The same day, the House Financial Services Committee passed several bills of its own on Taiwan, including the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, the PROTECT Taiwan Act, and the Taiwan Non-Discrimination Act, which aim to prevent a Chinese attack on Taiwan via financial mechanisms.

And on Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed three more bills. One of them was the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries Act, which seeks to give President Joe Biden the authority to ban Chinese mobile video app TikTok. Another was the Countering the PRC Malign Influence Fund Authorization Act. And the third was the Upholding Sovereignty of Airspace Act, which aims to hold China accountable for violating the U.S.’ airspace with high-altitude surveillance balloons, and which would also require the U.S. to support Taiwan’s participation in the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organization. All these bills still have to be approved by the House and the Senate before being sent to President Biden to sign into law.

Chen Ting-fei
DPP lawmaker
Some of the bills will put more economic pressure on China, to let Beijing know that the U.S. stands with Taiwan. So these are extremely meaningful moves.

With more and more pro-Taiwan bills introduced in the U.S. Congress, the U.S. is sending a strong signal to the world on where it stands on Taiwan matters.