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Congressional Research Service
Informing helegisIlive debAm sinceo 1914
Taiwan Presidents' U.S. Transit Visits
Updated April 6, 2023
Introduction
Since 1994, four sitting presidents of Taiwan have
undertaken a combined 29 trips abroad that have included
transit stops in the United States. Since 1995, the U.S.
government has not permitted Taiwan presidents to make
non-transit visits to the United States, but has allowed U.S.
transit visits. It presents this policy as consistent with the
unofficial nature of U.S.-Taiwan relations. (See also CRS
In Focus IF10275, Taiwan: Political and Security Issues.)
Stakeholders in the U.S. government, Taiwan, and the
People's Republic of China (PRC) see Taiwan presidents'
U.S. transit visits differently. The U.S. executive branch has
stated that it regards transits as private and unofficial and
consistent with the U.S. one-China policy. Some Members
of Congress have criticized the protocol surrounding
Taiwan presidents' transit visits as excessively restrictive.
Partly in response to such criticism, the executive branch
has gradually loosened such protocol restrictions.
Taiwan governments have sought opportunities for transit
visits, portraying U.S. permission for such stops as
affirmation of U.S. support, despite the absence of
diplomatic relations with the United States. The
government of the PRC, which claims sovereignty over
Taiwan, has long criticized Taiwan presidents' U.S. transit
visits as inconsistent with U.S. commitments to maintain
only unofficial relations with Taiwan, and charged that they
undermine PRC sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Evolution of U.S. Poly on Transits
Unofficial Relations
U.S.-Taiwan relations have been unofficial since January 1,
1979, when the United States established diplomatic
relations with the PRC and terminated diplomatic relations
with self-ruled Taiwan, which officially calls itself the
Republic of China (ROC). In three joint communiques
concluded with the PRC in 1972, 1978, and 1982, the
United States acknowledged, but did not endorse, the
Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is
part of China. In the 1978 communique, the United States
also stated that, the people of the United States will
maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations
with the people of Taiwan. The PRC views the
communiques as the basis for U.S.-China relations.
The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA, P.L. 96-8; 22 U.S.C.
§3301 et seq.) provides the legal basis for unofficial U.S.
relations with Taiwan. It includes a statement that it is U.S.
policy to preserve and promote extensive, close, and
friendly commercial, cultural, and other relations between
the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan,
as well as the people on the China mainland and all other
peoples of the Western Pacific area. The U.S. government
presents TRA and the communiques, plus six assurances
conveyed to Taiwan in 1982, as the documents that guide
the U.S. one-China policy. (See CRS In Focus IF 11665,
President Reagan 's Six Assurances to Taiwan.)
1994 Taiwan Policy Review
For the first 15 years after terminating diplomatic relations
with Taiwan, the U.S. executive branch interpreted
unofficial relations as precluding visits of any sort by
Taiwan presidents. In May 1994, however, the Clinton
Administration for the first time permitted a Taiwan
president to transit through the United States, allowing
Taiwan's then-President Lee Teng-hui to stop to refuel his
plane in Hawaii on his way to Central America, but not to
spend the night. Lee, apparently feeling insulted, declined
to leave the plane. Some Members of Congress saw the
Administration's treatment of Lee as insufficiently
respectful. At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee immediately after the transit, then-Senator
Frank H. Murkowski observed that the U.S. government
allowed figures such as Palestinian Liberation Organization
Chairman Yasser Arafat and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader,
the 14th Dalai Lama, to visit the United States. The
American public might not understand, Murkowski
suggested, why our friends such as the Taiwanese are kept
so far out and others without formal diplomatic relations
with the United States can come to Washington.
In September 1994, the Clinton Administration completed a
review of U.S. Taiwan policy. Subsequently-declassified
briefing papers for Under Secretary of State Peter Tarnoff's
travel to China that month show the Administration stating
that it would now [p]ermit normal transits of the U.S., but
no visits or public activities, for Taiwan's top leadership,
while continuing to [f]orbid visits, as opposed to transits,
by Taiwan's top leadership. On September 27, 1994,
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific
Affairs Winston Lord presented the outcome of the Taiwan
Policy Review to Congress. He stated that President Bill
Clinton has decided to enhance our unofficial ties with
Taiwan. Under questioning from Senators, one of whom
expressed dismay over the conditions of President Lee's
transit, Lord said under our new policy, we will permit
overnight visits. We will permit anything consistent with
security and comfort and convenience so long as it's a
transit visit. Lord added that the Administration strongly
opposes congressional attempts to legislate visits by top
leaders of the 'Republic of China' to the U.S. The next
month, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality
Technical Corrections Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-416). Section
221 of the act states that whenever Taiwan presidents or
high-level Taiwan officials apply for visas to visit the](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/goveley0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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