Insight: Trump signs Taiwan Travel Act
China’s Foreign Ministry expressed displeasure over US President Donald Trump’s signing of the Taiwan Travel Act (HR 535) on 16 March. The legislation, though non-binding, allows high-level communication between Taipei and Washington via interaction of cabinet-level national security officials and general officers.
Such high-level visits between the two have been banned since the US switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, and closed the US-Taiwan Defense Command and US Embassy.
The act is one of two pieces of legislation that Beijing has protested against under the 2018 legislative session. The other, the Taiwan Security Act (HR 4288), is
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