Taiwan Relations Act

Taiwan Relations Act

Full title	To help maintain peace, security, and stability in the Western Pacific and to promote the foreign policy of the United States by authorizing the continuation of commercial, cultural, and other relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan, and for other purposes.
Acronym	TRA
Enacted by the	96th United States Congress
Citations
Pub.L. 96-8
Stat.	93 Stat. 14
Codification
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as "United States-Taiwan Relations Act" (H.R. 2479 by Clement J. Zablocki (D-WI) on February 28, 1979 Committee consideration by: House Foreign Affairs Passed the House on March 13, 1979 (345–55) Passed the Senate on March 14, 1979 (90–6) Reported by the joint conference committee on March 24, 1979; agreed to by the House on March 28, 1979 (339–50) and by the Senate on March 29, 1979 (85–4) Signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on April 10, 1979
Major amendments
Supreme Court cases

The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA; Pub.L. 96-8, 93 Stat. 14, enacted April 10, 1979; H.R. 2479) is an act of the United States Congress passed in 1979 after the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the breaking of relations between the United States and the Republic of China (ROC) on the island of Taiwan by President Jimmy Carter. It more clearly defines the American position on Taiwan and its cross-strait relationship with Beijing. Congress rejected the State Department's proposed draft and replaced it with language that has remained in effect since 1979.

Provisions

The act authorizes de facto diplomatic relations with the "governing authorities on Taiwan" (which is currently the Republic of China government) by giving special powers to the American Institute in Taiwan to the level that it is the de facto embassy, and states that any international obligations previously made between the ROC and U.S. before 1979 are still valid unless otherwise terminated. One agreement that was unilaterally terminated by President Jimmy Carter upon the establishment of relations was the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty; that termination was the subject of the Supreme Court case Goldwater v. Carter.

The act provides for Taiwan to be treated under U.S. laws the same as "foreign countries, nations, states, governments, or similar entities". The act provides that for most practical purposes of the U.S. government, the absence of diplomatic relations and recognition will have no effect.

The act does not recognize the terminology of "Republic of China" after Jan. 1, 1979, but uses the terminology of "governing authorities on Taiwan". Geographically speaking, it defines the term "Taiwan" to include, as the context may require, the islands of Taiwan (the main Island) and Penghu, which form the Taiwan Province and Taipei and Kaohsiung cities. The act does not apply to Jinmen, the Matsus, the Pratas, Taiping Island, or Diaoyutai islands.

The act stipulates that the United States will "consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States".

This act also requires the United States "to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character", and "to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan." Successive U.S. administrations have sold arms to the ROC in compliance with the Taiwan Relations Act despite demands from the PRC that the U.S. following legally non-binding Three Joint Communiques and the U.S. government's proclaimed One-China policy (which differs from the PRC's One-China Policy). The Taiwan Relations Act does not require the U.S. to intervene militarily if the PRC attacks or invades Taiwan, and the U.S. has adopted a policy of "strategic ambiguity" in which the U.S. neither confirms nor denies that it would intervene in such a scenario.

Reactions

The PRC views the Taiwan Relations Act as "an unwarranted intrusion by the United States into the internal affairs of China," despite the fact that the post WWII Treaty of San Francisco did not award the territorial sovereignty of Taiwan to China. The Three Joint Communiques were signed in 1972, 1979, and 1982. The United States declared that the United States would not formally recognize PRC's sovereignty over Taiwan as part of the Six Assurances offered to Taipei in 1982. In the late 1990s, the United States Congress passed a non-binding resolution stating that relations between Taiwan and the United States will be honored through the TRA first.^{[citation needed]} This resolution, which puts greater weight on the TRA's value over that of the three communiques, was signed by President Bill Clinton as well.^{[citation needed]} A July 2007 Congressional Research Service Report confirmed that US policy has not recognized the PRC's sovereignty over Taiwan.

See also

• Political status of Taiwan
• Legal status of Taiwan
• Foreign relations of the Republic of China

External links

• Text of the Taiwan Relations Act
• Mandatory Guidance from Department of State Regarding Contact with Taiwan
• Taiwan Relations Act 30 Years Later
• Thoughts on the Taiwan Relations Act
• The Taiwan Relations Act at Thirty
• Taiwan Relations Act Needs Reaffirmation
• The Future of the Taiwan Relations Act and U.S.-Taiwan Relations