The White House sent out this press release:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2013
Statement by the President on H.R. 1151
Today I have signed into law H.R. 1151, an Act concerning participation of Taiwan in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The United States fully supports Taiwan's membership in international organizations where statehood is not a requirement for membership and encourages Taiwan's meaningful participation, as appropriate, in organizations where its membership is not possible. My Administration has publicly supported Taiwan's participation at the ICAO and will continue to do so. Consistent with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs, my Administration shall construe the Act to be consistent with the "one China" policy of the United States, which remains unchanged, and shall determine the measures best suited to advance the overall goal of Taiwan's participation in the ICAO. I note that sections 1(b) and 1(c) of the Act contain impermissibly mandatory language purporting to direct the Secretary of State to undertake certain diplomatic initiatives and to report to the Congress on the progress of those initiatives. Consistent with longstanding constitutional practice, my Administration will interpret and implement these sections in a manner that does not interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct diplomacy and to protect the confidentiality of diplomatic communications.
Brian Benedictus noted that there was a big TECRO (the Taiwan representative office in the US) push for this, remarking:
[TECRO] knew what they were doing---which is setting a precedent--Which is to ask (and receive) support from Congress on Taiwan's international participation in a lesser degree than they should. This was a bad precedent to set, and Taiwan's international space actually got a little smaller tonight.___________________
Daily Links:
- Haha. Why did Taiwan score so low on Transparency Int'l Corruption poll? Because TI used a CCP-linked Chinese think tank to conduct the poll. D'oh.
- Klaus Bardenhagen describes how to have a perfect Taiwan east coast trip in just four days.
- Court doesn't halt Dapu demolitions. A good thumbnail of some of the issues. But there are so many cases of this around Taiwan....
- Yacht building is one of Taiwan's smaller but important industries.
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