The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jesse Helms, evidently has little interest in peace in Asia. Just as tensions across the Taiwan Strait appear to be easing, Mr Helms has acted to inflame the situation by inviting Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to Washington.
This is not the first time Congressional Republicans have been needlessly provocative towards Beijing. It was their pressure which forced a reluctant Clinton administration to grant Mr Lee a visa for his visit to Cornell last summer, sparking off nine months of confrontation.
Some lawmakers seem to have learnt from that mistake. The Republican presidential nominee, Bob Dole, has so far refrained from making political capital out of the Taiwan crisis - although the temptation to do so will increase as he battles to narrow President Bill Clinton's lead in the run-up to the November election.
Even the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, has started to strike a more moderate tone. Only last summer he tried to 'rattle China's cage' by calling for diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. Now he says it is up to the White House to decide if Mr Lee should be invited back. Mr Helms is too much of an anti-China hawk to care about the damage he is doing. Instead he vowed to 'enjoy the squawking' as Beijing yesterday began its protests. It can only be hoped that his provocative proposal wins little support on Capitol Hill.
Mr Lee seems unlikely to rise to the bait. Yesterday he was quoted as pledging not to undertake any foreign trips for 'quite a while', and specifically ruling out an early visit to America. Having scored such a decisive electoral victory despite Beijing's attempts to intimidate the voters, Mr Lee should find it no great sacrifice to abandon such travel invitations for the sake of rebuilding cross-strait relations and seeking the peace accord he says is now his priority.
But such a strategy will not work unless it is also followed by his subordinates. The declaration by the government spokesman, Jason Hu, about Taiwan continuing to press for a higher international profile is less than helpful at this stage.