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![handle is hein.crs/govepwy0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Taiwan: Background and U.S. Relations
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Taiwan, which also calls itself the Republic of China
(ROC), is a self-governing democracy of 23.4 million
people located across the Taiwan Strait from mainland
China. The United States terminated diplomatic relations
with the ROC on January 1, 1979, in order to establish
diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China
(PRC), which claims sovereignty over Taiwan. At that time,
the U.S. government also agreed to withdraw U.S. military
personnel from Taiwan and terminate a U.S.-ROC Mutual
Defense Treaty, and stated that it would henceforth
maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial
relations with the people of Taiwan. The 1979 Taiwan
Relations Act (TRA, P.L. 96-8; 22 U.S.C. §§3301 et seq.)
provides a legal basis for unofficial relations.
In its most recent fact sheet on U.S. relations with Taiwan,
issued in May 2022, the U.S. State Department refers to the
United States and Taiwan as enjoying a robust unofficial
relationship. The fact sheet describes Taiwan as a key
U.S. partner in the Indo-Pacific, and states that the United
States and Taiwan share similar values, deep commercial
and economic links, and strong people-to-people ties.
Figure I. Taiwan
Source: Graphic by CRS.
Modern History
Taiwan was a colony of Japan from 1895 to 1945. The
government of the ROC, then based on mainland China,
assumed control of Taiwan in 1945, after Japan's defeat in
World War II. In 1949, after the forces of the Communist
Party of China (CPC) wrested control of mainland China
from ROC forces in a civil war, the Kuomintang (KMT)-led
ROC government retreated to Taiwan, and the CPC
established the PRC on mainland China. The United States
continued to recognize the ROC government on Taiwan as
Updated May 23, 2024
the government of all China. In 1971, U.N. General
Assembly Resolution 2758 recognized representatives of
the PRC as the only legitimate representatives of China to
the [U.N.], and expelled the representatives of Chiang
Kai-shek, the ROC's then-leader. In a December 15, 1978
U.S.-PRC communiqu6, the United States recognized the
PRC government as the sole legal Government of China.
The KMT enforced martial law on Taiwan from 1949 to
1987, when the party yielded to public pressure for political
liberalization. Taiwan held its first direct election for the
legislature, the Legislative Yuan (LY), in 1992, and its first
direct election for president in 1996.
2024 PoI ca Trans Ion
Taiwan held presidential and legislative elections in
January 2024. Lai Ching-te (William Lai) of the
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidency
with 40.05% of the vote in a three-way race. He and Vice
President Hsiao Bi-khim, a former unofficial Taiwan
representative to the United States, were inaugurated on
May 20, 2024. The DPP is the first party in Taiwan's
history to win a third consecutive presidential term by
direct election. Lai's predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP,
served the maximum two four-year terms allowed, from
2016 to 2024.
The elections produced divided government. The DPP lost
its majority in the 113-seat LY, and no party won a
majority, the first such outcome since 2004. The KMT, now
Taiwan's leading opposition party and supportive of greater
engagement with the PRC, won 52 seats, to the DPP's 51.
KMT-aligned independents won 2 seats. The Taiwan
People's Party (TPP), founded in 2019 with the goal of
challenging the dominance of the DPP and KMT, won 8
seats. In the days before and after Lai's inauguration, the
KMT and TPP caucuses attempted to leverage their
combined LY majority to advance legal amendments
intended to expand the power of the legislature relative to
the executive. The effort sparked a brawl in the LY and
drew thousands of protestors onto the streets.
On the campaign trail, Lai pledged continuity with Tsai's
policies. His cabinet includes figures from her
administration in national security roles. Lin Chia-lung is
foreign minister, succeeding Joseph Wu (Wu Jaushieh),
who now leads the National Security Council, replacing
Wellington Koo (Koo Li-hsiung), now defense minister.
In his inauguration speech, Lai echoed Tsai in stating, as
she first did in 2021, that, The Republic of China and the
People's Republic of China are not subordinate to each
other. Lai added, All of the people of Taiwan must come
together to safeguard our nation; all our political parties
ought to oppose annexation and protect sovereignty; and no
one should entertain the idea of giving up our national
sovereignty in exchange for political power.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govepwy0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)