U.S. 'deeply concerned' about China's new legal guidelines: Official

Washington, June 27 (CNA) The United States is "deeply concerned" about China's new legal guidelines that target advocates of Taiwan independence, a senior American State Department official said during a congressional hearing on Thursday.

"We're deeply concerned, and if past is prologue, we're concerned that China could apply these regulations to others overseas as well," Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told members of the U.S. House's Foreign Affairs Committee.

Kritenbrink was referring to the guidelines introduced by Beijing on June 21, which allow courts in China to try "Taiwan independence separatists" in absentia.

Under the guidelines, "diehard" advocates of Taiwan independence, convicted of inciting secession and who are also deemed to have caused "grave harm to the state and the (Chinese) people," could be sentenced to death.

According to Kritenbrink, the guidelines may not only be used for extraterritorial application of Chinese law in ways that are deeply disturbing but could also have a chilling effect on cross-strait dialogue and interaction.

China's move was clearly designed to intimidate people and prevent them from candidly expressing their opinions about the situation across the Taiwan Strait, Kritenbrink said.

During the hearing, Kritenbrink also said he would be happy to look again at the Taiwan Travel Act, which was signed into law in 2018 to allow high-level officials of the U.S. to visit Taiwan and vice versa.

He was responding to questions by Representative Young Kim of the Republican Party on whether there were any State Department restrictions that would prevent Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and other senior officials from traveling to the U.S. for purposes other than a stopover.

Kritenbrink said that there was frequent two-way travel and interaction between Taiwan and U.S.

"We support travel and engagement," he said, adding, however, that he had no immediate plans to visit Taiwan.

He also said "traditionally, based on our robust, important, but unofficial partnership with Taiwan, we don't have those leader-to-leader meetings that would imply sovereignty."