U.S. lawmakers propose to abolish the "standards for exchanges with Taiwan," Taiwan media: the United States wants to use Taiwan as a pawn to stimulate the mainland
[Global Times Special Correspondent Zhang Tianxing] At the time when China and the United States were fighting fiercely over the consulate, U.S. Representative Tiffany threw out an amendment requesting the State Department to end many restrictions on the "Guidelines for Exchanges with Taiwan."
The "Guidelines for Exchanges with Taiwan" are regulations on US-Taiwan interaction restrictions formulated by the State Department during the Obama administration in 2015. The reason is that the then Taipei Representative to the United States, Shen Luxun, held a New Year's Day "Flag Raising Ceremony" at the US representative office, which caused strong dissatisfaction in the United States. After the incident, the US State Department issued an administrative memorandum, which not only prohibits the Taipei representative office in the US from entering the US State Department building, prohibits Taiwan from raising the flag in the US representative office, but also prohibits the display of the "Republic of China flag" in US government agencies. The US State Department and National Defense The Ministry is not allowed to post any icon with the "National Flag of the Republic of China" or the symbol of "sovereignty" on the social network website. According to Taiwan's pro-green "Freedom Times" report on the 26th, Tiffany's proposal is to end many restrictions on the "standards for exchanges with Taiwan."
The "Guidelines for Exchanges with Taiwan" have gradually loosened in recent years. According to China Times, Taipei’s representative to the United States, Gao Shuotai, stepped into the U.S. State Department and took a group photo with officials before leaving office. “The prohibition of officials from our representative office in the United States from entering the State Department building has been lifted.” In addition, the U.S. Pacific Air Force Command invited 18 countries and regions including Taiwan to hold a video conference at the end of April. The "National Flag of the Republic of China" was juxtaposed with other participating members. In May, 27 congressmen including U.S. Rep. Risen Sauer and McCall of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to Secretary of State Pompeo, claiming that "U.S.-Taiwan relations are unprecedentedly important, but as far as we know, the previous government’s Unnecessarily restrictive standards continue to hinder our relationship".
Free Electronic News stated on the 26th that Taipei’s new representative to the United States, Xiao Meiqin, took four cats to Washington to take up her new post. “The lifting of the ban on exchanges between Taiwan will become one of the key projects.” "China Times" stated that Xiao Meiqin went to the United States to find her job, and her "target task" was the signing of the Taiwan-US FTA (Free Trade Agreement).
Jie Wenji, the former representative of Taipei in New Zealand, analyzed that because of a lot of turmoil in the United States, Xiao Meiqin had just arrived in the United States. Huang Jiezheng, a scholar at Tamkang University, assessed that no matter who is elected president of the United States at the end of the year, he is likely to review his policies towards Taiwan and the mainland. According to the China Times, Taiwan has repeatedly expressed its willingness to sign a Taiwan-US FTA, but most people know that the possibility is not high because the United States is unwilling to anger the mainland for this. The United States wants to use Taiwan as a pawn to stimulate the mainland." For Taiwan, it is more important to evaluate: if it gets a Taiwan-US FTA, it will cause cross-strait relations to worsen, are the overall interests of Taiwan positive or negative? From the perspective of economic and trade interests alone, the United States accounts for more than 10% of Taiwan’s export market and the mainland accounts for 40%.