US adds Taiwan to visa waiver programme
October 03, 2012 08:34
The US government has added Taiwan to its visa waiver programme as part of a strategy to expand tourism to the United States, the White House said.
The move will allow Taiwanese visitors to enter the United States 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 programme" although earlier in his briefing here referred to the island as a "member."
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