The US government has certified Taiwan a member of its visa waiver program, as part of his strategy to expand tourism to the United States, the White House said Tuesday.
The move will allow Taiwanese visitors to the United States to enter the country for 90 days without visas, a privilege already extended to people of 36 nations.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had linked up to designate “Taiwan as the newest member of the visa waiver program,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
The move was a logical development in the “close security, economic and people-to-people relationship between the US and Taiwan,” he said.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and the two have been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949.
But Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island and has threatened to invade should it declare formal independence.
In one remark that may anger China, Carney briefly mistakenly referred to Taiwan as “the latest country to join this program” although earlier in his briefing here referred to the island as a “member.”
He also insisted that there was no message being sent to Beijing with the move.
“There is no message to any other country. It is simply a new development in the visa waiver program, another member of the program, Taiwan.”
The European Union granted visa free travel to visitors from Taiwan in 2010, even though like Washington, it does not recognize the island as a sovereign state.
US adds Taiwan to visa waiver program
