The bills still need US Senate and presidential endorsement to become law, but if passed that will mean a fundamental change in the Whashingon-Beijing relations. The Taiwan Travel Act in fact is designed to improve official exchanges between Washington and Taipei and it would allow US government officials to travel to Taiwan and meet their counterparts and vice versa. Such meetings have been avoided since Washington shifted diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. The other piece of legislation instead aims to help Taiwan regain observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation. The two bills show many forces in the US are attempting to flare up the Taiwan question once again and use it as leverage against China.
