H.R. 5630 — Introduced in House

I 118th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 5630 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 21, 2023Mr. Donalds (for himself, Mr. Moore of Alabama, Mr. Self, Mr. Tiffany, and Mr. Moylan) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL To require agencies to use the term Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Taiwan Identification Terminology and Label Enhancement Act or the TITLE Act. 2. Findings; purpose (a) Findings Congress finds as follows: (1) The United States Government has never officially recognized the People’s Republic of China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. (2) The Chinese Communist Party in the People’s Republic of China seeks to control Taiwan through means of persuasion and coercion, and potentially compellance. (3) The People’s Liberation Army has set a goal of 2027 to have the capability to invade Taiwan, which also marks the 100-year anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army’s founding. (4) 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, illustrating the People’s Republic of China’s mistaken view that Taiwan is a region of China. (5) Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China are separated by a median line in the Taiwan Strait, which acts as an unofficial boundary that has generally been respected since 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 violated since. (6) Taiwan officially recorded 380 Chinese air incursions into the Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone in 2020, 969 Chinese air incursions in 2021, and 1,115 Chinese air incursions in 2022, illustrating a growing disregard to Taiwan’s sovereignty. (7) Many Taiwanese individuals see the Chinese Taipei nomenclature as a symbol of oppression from the People’s Republic of China, of which originally stems 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. (8) In Mandarin language, Taiwan uses a version of Chinese Taipei in which Chinese is the cultural term zhonghua and does not have sovereignty connotations. Comparatively, the People’s Republic of China uses a version of Chinese Taipei in which Chinese is zhongguo or China which mistakenly implies that Taiwan is part of China. (b) Purpose It is the sense of Congress that Congress— (1) believes the United States must stand firm in the commitments it made in the Taiwan Relations Act (22 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.), which states that the United States must 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; (2) continues to support and defend Taiwan as it withstands control-seeking persuasion and coercion from an increasingly aggressive People’s Republic of China; and (3) decries the United States Government’s use of Chinese Taipei nomenclature, but instead favors the use of Taiwan, to ultimately exert the belief that Taiwan’s status must be resolved peacefully and include the wishes of the people of Taiwan. 3. Agency requirement to use Taiwan (a) In general An agency may not use Chinese Taipei and shall use Taiwan, except— (1) in historical context explaining the People’s Republic of China’s attempt to control Taiwan through persuasion and coercion; or (2) in the formal title of a Federal document. (b) Requirement To update agency websites 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. (c) Agency defined The term agency has the meaning given that term in section 551 of title 5, United States Code.