Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

US officials to skip Taiwan event

Taipei Times

The US Department of State is declining for the first time to address an annual industry conference on defense and security ties between the US and Taiwan, the event’s organizer said.

US arms sales to Taiwan are a major sore spot with China. Still, the State Department has sent one of its senior officials to speak at the event each year for the past nine years, US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers said in an interview on Tuesday.

“It’s certainly a -disappoint-ment,” he said, although a senior Pentagon official will address the conference.

Taiwan bill introduced in US Congress

Taipei Times

A major new bill to strengthen and enhance the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) has been introduced to the US Congress by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairperson of the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee.

“With the TRA and the 2000 Taiwan Relations Enhancement Act, it is the most important piece of Taiwan legislation in the US Congress over the past 30 years,” said Coen Blaauw, an executive with the Formosa Association For -Public Affairs.

Known as the “Taiwan Policy Act of 2011,” the bill may have enough bipartisan support to pass the Republican-controlled House, but it is likely to have a harder time in the Senate.

US Congress resolution calls for UN seat for Taiwan

Taipei Times

US Representative Scott Garrett has introduced a resolution to the US Congress declaring that Taiwan deserves membership in the UN.

Garrett, a Republican, did so as the UN General Assembly opened its annual session in New York.

“Year after year, the UN has failed to offer the 23 million people of Taiwan and their freely elected government representation on the world stage,” Garrett said. “The world body can no longer act as if the unelected communist government of the People’s Republic of China truly represents the interests of Taiwan. Currently, Taiwan is the only democratically governed nation in the world that does not enjoy a single vote in the General Assembly.”

‘Extraordinarily tight’ control forcing monks to commit suicide in Tibet: US

Phayul Stringer

DHARAMSHALA, September 14: “Control over religious practice and the day-to-day management of monasteries and other religious institutions continued to be extraordinarily tight” says a new report on religious freedom in Tibet adding that "several monks also reportedly committed suicide as a result of the harsh conditions and religious restrictions."

The US State Department in its annual report on International Religious Freedom released Tuesday expressed continued concern over the protection of fundamental human rights in Tibet citing that “the government's level of respect for religious freedom remained poor in Tibet”.

“Although China’s constitution protects religious freedom for all citizens but, in practice, the government generally enforced other laws and policies that restrict religious freedom,” the US State Department noted under the Tibet section of its report.

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