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U.S. House passes bill that bans maps depicting Taiwan 'inaccurately'

ROC Central News Agency

03/10/2022 06:40 PM

Washington, March 9 (CNA) The United States House of Representatives passed an appropriation bill on Wednesday that would prohibit the use of any maps by the U.S. State Department and its foreign operations that "inaccurately" depict Taiwan.

The bill, dubbed as the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022, stipulates that "none of the funds made available by this Act should be used to create, procure, or display any map that inaccurately depicts the territory and social and economic system of Taiwan and the islands or island groups administered by Taiwan authorities."

It, however, does not specify what constitutes an accurate portrayal of Taiwan on maps.

The single bill was approved by the House as part of a US$1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill, which is also referred to as the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, in bipartisan votes on Wednesday evening and will be sent to the Senate for approval.

The appropriation bill pertaining to the U.S. foreign assistance first passed the House in July 2021 by a vote of 217 to 212, but it did not move beyond the Senate and was instead packaged in the omnibus spending bill after some revisions were made to it.

The original bill was passed last July with an amendment that states "none of the funds made available by this Act may be used to create, procure, or display any map that depicts Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou, Green Island, or Orchid Island as part of the territory of the People's Republic of China."

Tom Tiffany, one of the Republican representatives who proposed the amendment, commented that the revision would "require honest maps that stop perpetuating the 'one China' lie."

Tiffany was referring to the U.S. "one China" policy, which he said acknowledged "Beijing's bogus argument that Taiwan is part of Communist China" and should be abandoned.

Under the "one China" policy, the U.S. acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and that Taiwan is part of China.

(By Stacy Hsu and Teng Pei-ju)

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