H.R. 535 would recommend that the federal government encourage and expand bilateral travel by officials of the United States and Taiwan and allow the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) to conduct activities in the United States that U.S. and Taiwanese officials could participate in.
The United States terminated diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979. U.S. government relations with that island are considered “unofficial” and conducted through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a private nonprofit corporation, and TECRO, its Taiwanese counterpart. Interactions between high-level U.S. and Taiwanese officials are constrained and federal employees traveling to Taiwan on official business must use their personal passports instead of official or diplomatic passports.
