Trump Quietly Signs Legislation Strengthening Ties to Taiwan

With the world focused on COVID-19, Trump signed the TAIPEI Act into law.

Amid the U.S. response to COVID-19, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the TAIPEI Act of 2019 into law last week. The bill passed unanimously in the House of Representatives in March after the Senate version was unanimously approved last October. Resolving the Taiwan question — or reunification in Beijing’s eyes — remains China’s top priority. Accordingly, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quick to respond to the passage of the new U.S. law. MFA spokesperson Geng Shuang condemned the legislation as a violation of the one-China principle and the three joint communiqués that delineated the normalization of U.S.-China relations. Tit-for-tat conspiracies have emerged assigning blame for the origin of the virus between Washington and Beijing. China is recalibrating its messaging about its own domestic COVID-19 efforts, painting its harsh lockdown measures as effective, while ignoring the state apparatus’ delay in acknowledging the extent of the outbreak.

This article was written by Eleanor Albert

To read the full article, please click on the following link: https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/trump-quietly-signs-legislation-strengthening-ties-to-taiwan/