HR0253 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0253 LRB097 11428 KXB 53844 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Republic of China (Taiwan) has achieved economic and social stability, currently the world's 16th largest trading nation; in the last 2 decades it has been praised as a beacon of democracy for Asia; it has taken great steps forward to enter the world arena as a trusted partner; and for the last 2 years has participated as an observer in the World Health Assembly, for which Taiwan is grateful to the United States, and, in particular, the Illinois General Assembly for their longstanding support in this regard; and

WHEREAS, Illinois has a strong economic and cultural relationship with Taiwan since establishing sister-state relations in 1992; Illinois has ranked 6th in the last 2 years among U.S. states in the value of Illinois' overall exports to Taiwan; in 2010 U.S. exports to Taiwan increased by 43%; Taiwan sent 25 procurement missions to the United States between 1978 and 2009, which have enhanced the mutually beneficial trade relations and permanent friendship between the 2 countries, while the Illinois economy has benefited from Taiwan's consistently large imports of Illinois agricultural products; in 2009, Taiwan was one of the world's largest importers of Illinois soy products and ranked as the 13th largest market for Illinois exports overall; and

WHEREAS, Taiwan's continuing absence from international organizations dealing with climate change has impeded Taiwan's ability to respond to natural disasters, such as Typhoon Morakot in 2009, while the global initiative to combat climate change has been impaired by the lack of participation of Taiwan; and, similarly, Taiwan's absence from international organizations dealing with airline safety and security, major global concerns since 2001, has left a gap in the international aviation security system, as Taiwan is a key transport hub in the Asia-Pacific region with more than 1,000,000 flights passing through the Taipei Flight Information Region and one of the world's largest airports by cargo volume, Taoyuan International Airport; and

WHEREAS, The Taiwan government highly values its relations with the United States and continually seeks to demonstrate its willingness to contribute its resources and know-how to the international community, such as its swift delivery of humanitarian assistance to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake in that country, expedited by the United States, which has generously aided Taiwan in rescue and recovery after Typhoon Morakot; and to contribute to peace, freedom, and security in the world as a responsible stakeholder and peaceable nation of 23,000,000 citizens through the Republic of China's policies, such as "flexible diplomacy" in foreign affairs and its pragmatic approach to relations with mainland China, as demonstrated by the historic passage in 2010 and implementation in 2011 of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement between Taipei and Beijing; and

WHEREAS, The Taiwan government has met a central requirement for inclusion in the United States Visa Waiver Program by achieving a low visa-rejection rate of less than 3% among Republic of China nationals applying for visas to the United States and has gained visa-waiver status with 97 other countries, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada, which, taken together, represents 94% of the most frequently visited countries by Republic of China citizens and is an increase of 44 countries of those granting Taiwan visa-waiver status in just 2 1/2 years, thus symbolizing the growing respect commanded by the ROC internationally; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate the Republic of China (Taiwan) on the centennial of its birth in 1911 as Asia's first Republic; and, to increase Taiwan's international space and contribution to the global community, we reaffirm our support for the meaningful participation of Taiwan in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) with observer status and urge the United States government to include Taiwan in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program as soon as possible; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago.