About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (July 14, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveeda0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Taiwan: Political and Security Issues Updated July 14, 2021 Taiwan, which officially calls itself the Republic of China (ROC), is an island democracy of 23.6 million people located across the Taiwan Strait from mainland China. U.S.-Taiwan relations have been unofficial since January 1, 1979, when the Carter Administration established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and broke formal diplomatic ties with self-ruled Taiwan, over which the PRC claims sovereignty. The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA, P.L. 96-8; 22 U.S.C. §§3301 et seq.), enacted on April 10, 1979, provides a legal basis for this unofficial bilateral relationship. It also includes commitments related to Taiwan's security. For discussion of economic issues, see CRS In Focus IF10256, U.S.- Taiwan Trade Relations, by Karen M. Sutter. Modern History and Current Events In 1949, after losing a civil war on mainland China to the Communist Party of China, the ROC's ruling party, the Kuomintang (KMT), moved the ROC seat of government to Taiwan. The KMT continued to assert that the ROC was the sole legitimate government of all China. In 1971, however, U.N. General Assembly Resolution 2758 recognized the PRC's representatives as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations, and expelled the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek, the ROC's then-leader. Taiwan has remained outside of the United Nations since. It today claims effective jurisdiction over Taiwan, the archipelagos of Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, and other outlying islands. Figure I. Taiwan Sources: Graphic by CR5. Map generated by Hannah data from NGA (2017); DoS (2015); Esri (2014); DeL The KMT maintained authoritarian one-party Taiwan until 1987, when popular pressure for Fischer using political liberalization. The May 2016 inauguration of current President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) marked Taiwan's third peaceful transfer of political power from one party to another. Tsai won a second four-year term in January 2020 with 57.1% of the vote. The DPP lost seats but maintained its majority in Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan. Tsai has demanded respect from China for what she calls Taiwan's separate identity. Tsai's August 2020 decision to ease restrictions on imports of U.S. pork containing ractopamine, a food additive, has cost her public support. A referendum on the issue, originally scheduled for August 2021, is now slated for December 18, 2021. In delaying the vote, Taiwan's government cited its first major outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which began in May 2021. Taiwan had previously recorded a cumulative total of 7 deaths from COVID-19. By July 14, 2021, it had reported 753 deaths. The Biden Administration donated 2.5 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to the island in June 2021. Japan has donated 2.37 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. U.S. Commitments Related to Taiwan The PRC seeks to enforce a one China principle, which holds that Taiwan is part of China. The United States adheres to its own one-China policy, guided by U.S.-PRC joint communiques concluded in 1972, 1978, and 1982; the TRA; and Six Assurances that President Ronald Reagan communicated to Taiwan in 1982. The U.S. government considers Taiwan's political status to be unresolved. In the communiques, the United States recognized the PRC government as the sole legal government of China; acknowledged, but did not endorse, the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China; and pledged to maintain only unofficial relations with Taiwan. In the 1982 communique, the U.S. government stated that with a PRC commitment to a peaceful solution in mind, the United States intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan. (U.S. arms sales have continued.) Key provisions of the TRA include the following: * Relations with Taiwan shall be carried out through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a private corporation. (AIT Taipei performs many of the same functions as U.S. embassies elsewhere and is staffed by U.S. government personnel assigned or detailed to AIT.) * The United States will make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability. orme (2014). * The President is directed to inform the Congress rule on promptly of any threat to the security or the social or ced it to allow economic system of the people on Taiwan and any danger to the interests of the United States arising https://crsreports.congress.gov

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most