U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed legislation that encourages the United States to send senior officials to Taiwan to meet Taiwanese counterparts and vice versa, angering China which views the self-ruled island as a wayward province, CNBC reported.
The bill, which is non-binding, would have gone into effect on Saturday morning, even if Trump had not signed it, said the White House.
The move adds to the tensions between the two countries over trade, as Trump has legislated tariffs and urged China to reduce its huge trade imbalance with the United States, even while Washington has leaned on Beijing to help resolve strains with North Korea.
Earlier on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated that Beijing was opposed to the legislation and called on the United States to follow the “one China” policy, which guarantees that Taiwan is part of China, and cease official exchanges with Taiwan.
In a statement after Trump’s signing of the bill, the Chinese embassy said clauses of the legislation “severely violate the one-China principle, the political foundation of the China-U.S. relationship.”
“China is strongly dissatisfied with that and firmly opposes it,” the statement said, adding that the United States should “stop pursuing any official ties with Taiwan or improving its current relations with Taiwan in any substantive way.”
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry voiced its thanks for the “friendly move” by the Trump administration, saying the government would continue to deepen its cooperation and partnership with the United States at all levels.
The United States does not have formal ties with Taiwan but is required by law to help it with self-defense and is the island’s primary source of weapons.
Douglas Paal, who served as U.S. representative to Taiwan from 2002 to 2006, said the legislation did not change anything real as it was non-binding. U.S. administrations already had discretionary authority to permit visits by senior Taiwanese officials and visits by senior U.S. officials and military officers to Taiwan, he said.
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