An American congressional task force focusing on China is showing overt support for Taiwan by advocating free trade talks, more security assurances and a renaming of the island’s representative office in Washington to signify a closer relationship.

A final report issued Wednesday by the all-Republican House of Representatives China Task Force contained more than 400 recommendations to deal with Communist Party activities that posed challenges to the United States. Around 10 of those recommendations were related to Taiwan.

The report accused China’s Communist Party of trying to control the global market and shift the international economic center and investment activities to Beijing through unfair competition, theft of technology and intellectual property, and other means.

It identified Taiwan as the key to resisting the Communist Party’s plot, saying that the self-ruled island was facing a more direct threat from Beijing compared to other U.S. partners. The report warned that if China successfully controlled Taiwan, it would weaken the U.S.' global security league, batter its technology supply chain and deal a heavy blow to democracy in the world.

The task force further suggested renaming the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. to Taiwan Representative Office or something similar, to reflect the country’s solid relations with the whole of Taiwan instead of just the capital city, Taipei. It also asked the U.S. Congress to pass five pieces of legislation, including the Taiwan Assurance Act, Taiwan Symbols of Sovereignty Act and Taiwan Fellowship Act, to allow more interaction between the two places and urged government officials to learn the Chinese language to better understand Taiwan.

As well, Congress should request that the U.S. Department of Defense submit a report on its plan to react to the threat that the People’s Liberation Army of China posed to Taiwan and Japan, as well as an estimate on the resources needed to implement the plan, the report suggested.

In response to the final report, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed gratitude to Congress and said it would continue to connect with the U.S. administration and congress members to deepen the friendly partnership between the two places.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play