Saturday, July 23, 2005

FAPA Update on Taiwan-related US legislative activity

http://www.FAPA.orgFormosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA)
552 7th St. SE, Washington, D.C. 20003
TEL: (202) 547-3686 FAX:(202) 543-7891 Email: home@fapa.org

HOUSE PASSES ACT WITH IMPORTANT TAIWAN AMENDMENTS IN IT
On July 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, FY 2006 and 2007, with several Taiwan related amendments in it with 351 against 78 votes. (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll399.xml)

Amendment #1 supports high-level visits by Taiwan's elected leaders.

Amendment #2 disavows Chinese General Zhu's recent comments threatening to use nuclear force against the United States and urges China to renounce the use of force against Taiwan

Amendment #3 authorizes funding for a new AIT building in Taipei.

FAPA Press Releases

TAIWAN IS NOT A PROVINCE OF CHINA

Alerted by FAPA members that AMTRAK and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) erroneously list Taiwan as being a part of China, FAPA President Ming-Chi Wu recently wrote to both institutions urging them to remedy the mistakes.

In the AMTRAK letter, Wu writes: "I write to you today to express my serious concern with Amtrak's online billing address form, which erroneously lists Taiwan as a province of China. [...] I urge you to correct this grave error by revising your listing of the country of Taiwan to simply: "Taiwan" and strike any reference to China. [...]"

In the ISO letter, Wu writes: "I write to you today to express my serious concern about the ISO 3166-1standard which lists Taiwan as a province of China. This issue has caused strong feelings on the part of Taiwanese around the world. I therefore urge you strongly to correct this factual error. [...]"

Full text of both letters

Amtrak Letter

CONGRESSMAN DEMANDS APOLOGY, REPUDIATION OF NUCLEAR THREAT FROM CHINESE GOVERNMENT

In a press release dated July 14, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) demanded an immediate apology and unequivocal repudiation of Major General Zhu Chenghu's nuclear threat against the United States.

The Congressman states: "If China continues to walk down this destructive path, I believe that the United States may be forced to revisit the decision to establish diplomatic ties with your country in the first place." He concludes: "If there were ever a question of whether China's bid to take over Unocal would pass American review, it's clear they've nuked that opportunity now."

For full text of press release, go here.

CONGRESSIONAL TAIWAN CAUCUS REACHES 147 MEMBERS

Two more Representatives joined the ever growing Congressional Taiwan Caucus during the month of July: reps. Nancy Johnson (R-CT) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).

Most updated list of CTC members

4 comments:

Christopher Trottier said...

I agree. Taiwan should be independent.

Chaon said...

Michael, call me. We're playing at 1:30ish.

Anonymous said...

When sending letters or emails to companies that refer to Taiwan as 'Taiwan (Province of China)' don't talk about politics.

Just tell them you often have problems receiving mail that's addressed 'Taiwan (Province of China)'. Point out that mail will arrive months late or may simply get lost in the PRC.
In my experience this approach is very effective.

Jason said...

I wrote to a distant uncle of mine (who just happens to have been last year's ISO president) with the FAPA letter attached. He forwarded it on to the ANSI (American Nat'l Standards Institute?) which is part of the ISO arguing that there has to be a better way to make both Taiwan and China happy in this situation. Don't know how much good it'll do, but at least some of the upper-ups in the ISO now know of the issue.