U.S. Congress out of loop on Taiwan and PRC, report says.

(From China Post)

Successive U.S. administrations have often left the U.S. Congress out of the decision-making process on policy relating to cross-strait issues, according to newly released findings of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), the U.S. law that governs relations between Taiwan and the U.S. in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, gives Congress a "joint role with the executive branch in the fashioning of U.S. cross-strait policy," the commission notes in its findings released on Wednesday.

While Congress has been consulted more regularly in "recent years," the legislative branch of the U.S. government "has too often been notified only after the (U.S.) administration has, in effect, made a decision," note the eleven commissioners, experts on national security matters and U.S.-PRC relations drawn from academia, business and government.

Consultation between the executive and legislative branches is particularly important given that, as the commission states, Taiwan "remains the key political and military flash point" between the U.S. and mainland China.

Testifying during a Feb. 6 commission hearing, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Randall Schriver reiterated that the U.S. remains committed to the defense of Taiwan against aggression from mainland China based largely on the TRA.

With this in mind, the commission notes that "China's continuing missile build-up opposite Taiwan is a serious challenge to Taiwan's security."