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US House subcommittee
unanimously passes Taiwan Policy Act, Ma warned
By William Lowther / Staff reporter in WASHINGTON
The Taiwan Policy Act, aimed at strengthening and clarifying relations between
the US and Taiwan, was unanimously passed on Thursday by the US House of
Representatives Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.
It will now go to the Foreign Affairs Committee and must be voted on by the full
US House of Representatives and Senate before it can become law.
The act would authorize the sale of F-16C/D aircraft, allow high-ranking
Taiwanese officials to visit Washington, authorize the transfer of
decommissioned missile frigates to Taiwan and support Taiwanese membership of
international organizations.
ˇ§[The act] will strengthen the relationship between our two nations, and I want
to emphasis the word nations,ˇ¨ subcommittee chairman Steve Chabot said.
ˇ§Taiwan is a democracy and is a friend and ally and deserves to be treated as
such by the US government,ˇ¨ Chabot said.
ˇ§Since 2006, Taiwan has been unsuccessful in procuring new F-16C/D jets. I am
told the [US President Barack] Obama administration has under consideration an
arms sales package that may include the F-16C/Ds.ˇ¨ he said.
ˇ§This legislation would authorize those sales and would provide a very important
security shield to Taiwan as it faces aggression from China,ˇ¨ he added.
Chabot said the legislation would also address the issue of diplomatic meetings
with high-ranking Taiwanese officials who currently are not allowed to visit
Washington.
ˇ§It is just nonsense that these people cannot come to Washington and this act
will address it and allow Taiwanese officials to enter the US with appropriate
respect and meet with US officials. This is an excellent bill,ˇ¨ he added.
Republican Representative Ileana Ros Lehtinen said that Taiwan continued to be
an ˇ§essentialˇ¨ ally of the US.
ˇ§This bill tells the Taiwanese people just how deeply we appreciate their
friendship,ˇ¨ she said.
California Republican Dana Rohrabacher issued a warning to the administration of
President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E).
He said that two years ago, as a result of pressure from Beijing, Taipei was
threatening to withdraw its permission for the Falun Gong spiritual movement to
broadcast TV programs into China from a Taiwan-based satellite facility.
Rohrabacher said that he had called Ma to say that if the Falun Gong was not
allowed to broadcast, he would have to reconsider his support for Taiwan.
Taipei responded by allowing the broadcasts, but issued a license for only two
years, and that license would soon have to be renewed, Rohrabacher said.
He said that he hoped the Ma administration would not ˇ§be doing the bidding of
Beijingˇ¨ by cutting off the Falun Gong and said he hoped that it would renew the
license.
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