HR2113-119

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the America Supports Taiwan Act.

2. Findings; purpose Congress finds as follows: The United States Government has never officially recognized the People’s Republic of China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. The People’s Republic of China, led by the Chinese Communist Party, seeks to control Taiwan through means of persuasion and coercion, and potentially compellence. The People’s Liberation Army seeks to have the capability to invade Taiwan by 2027, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party’s military, the People’s Liberation Army. The People’s Republic of China refers to Taiwan as a region and to the President of Taiwan as the leader of the Taiwan region, consistent with its assertion that Taiwan is a region of the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan and mainland China are separated by a median line in the Taiwan Strait, which acts as an unofficial boundary that was generally respected from 1999, until September 2020, when a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman stated, there is no so-called median line in the Strait, and People’s Liberation Army aircraft and vessels have repeatedly crossed the median line since then, as more than 1,400 PRC aircraft reportedly crossed the median line in 2024. An accounting, based on Taiwan Ministry of National Defense reporting, of incursions into Taiwan’s de facto Air Defense Identification Zone by PRC military aircraft illustrates a sharp increase over time, with approximately 3,075 incursions in 2024, up from approximately 390 in 2020, illustrating a more confrontational posture toward Taiwan and honing military capabilities required to conduct combat operations near Taiwan. Many people of Taiwan see the Chinese Taipei nomenclature as a symbol of oppression from the People’s Republic of China, originally stemming from an effort to find a way for both Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China to participate in the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. In Mandarin Chinese, Taiwan uses a version of Chinese Taipei in which Chinese is the cultural term zhonghua and does not have sovereignty connotations. Comparatively, the Chinese-language translation of Chinese Taipei carries the connotation that Taiwan is culturally Chinese, and thus the English term can be easily misunderstood to connote PRC possession of Taipei, and by extension, all of Taiwan. It is the sense of Congress that— the United States must stand firm in the commitments it made in the Taiwan Relations Act (22 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.), which declares that it is the policy of the United States to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan; the United States Government continues to support Taiwan and enable it to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability as it withstands control-seeking persuasion and coercion from an increasingly aggressive People’s Republic of China; and the United States Government disfavors the use of the Chinese Taipei nomenclature, and instead favors the use of Taiwan so as to avoid connotations of possession with the Chinese Taipei term in English and support resolution of cross-Strait differences by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.

3. Agency requirement to use Taiwan The head of an agency may not use Chinese Taipei and shall use Taiwan, except— in historical context explaining the People’s Republic of China’s attempt to control Taiwan through persuasion and coercion; or to the extent that the head of the agency is working on matters relating to Taiwan with an international organization at which Taiwan is a participant under a different official name. Not later than 14 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the head of each agency shall ensure the website of the agency meets the requirements of this section. The term agency has the meaning given that term in section 551 of title 5, United States Code.