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1 1 (June 26, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govbadc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Taiwan: Select Political and Security Issues 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. Since January 1, 1979, U.S.-Taiwan relations have been unofficial, a consequence of the Carter Administration's decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and break 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. Trump Administration Policy After initially questioning the long-standing U.S. one- China policy, President Donald J. Trump used a February 2017 telephone call with PRC President Xi Jinping to recommit the United States to the policy, under which the United States maintains only unofficial ties with Taiwan, while upholding the TRA. The Trump Administration's December 2017 National Security Strategy states that the United States will maintain our strong ties with Taiwan in accordance with our 'One China' policy, including our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide for Taiwan's legitimate defense needs and deter coercion. Trump Administration language on Taiwan has evolved since 2017. The Department of Defense's (DOD's) June 2019 Indo-Pacific Strategy Report discusses Taiwan without referencing the U.S. one-China policy. In a first for a high-profile U.S. government report in the era of unofficial relations, it refers to Taiwan as a country. The strategy presents Taiwan, along with Singapore, New Zealand, and Mongolia, as Indo-Pacific democracies that are reliable, capable, and natural partners of the United States. The document also asserts that, The United States has a vital interest in upholding the rules-based international order, which includes a strong, prosperous, and democratic Taiwan. In line with the strategy, in June 2019, DOD created a new Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) position focused solely on China, leaving Taiwan under the DASD for East Asia. With the move, DOD for the first time assigned responsibility for China and Taiwan to separate DASDs. In another first, in May 2019, the United States hosted a meeting between the U.S. and Taiwan National Security Advisors. On May 30, 2019, a spokesperson for the PRC's Ministry of National Defense accused the United States of playing with fire in its approach to Taiwan. The United States conducts unofficial relations with Taiwan through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a nonprofit corporation. A new $255-million AIT complex in Taipei opened in May 2019. AIT-Taiwan collaborations include the Global Cooperation and Training Framework and new Indo-Pacific Democratic Governance Consultations. Updated June 26, 2019 Taiwan's Modern History China's Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. The Republic of China, which was founded in 1912 on mainland China and led by the Kuomintang Party (KMT), assumed control of Taiwan in 1945, after Japan's defeat in World War II. In 1949, after losing a civil war to the Communist Party of China, the KMT moved the seat of the ROC to Taipei, and the Communists established the PRC on mainland China. Figure I. Taiwan Source: Graphic by CRS. Map generated by Hannah Fischer using data from NGA (2017); DoS (2015); Esri (2014); DeLorme (2014). Long after the retreat to Taiwan, the KMT continued to assert that the ROC government was the sole legitimate government of all China. In 1971, however, United Nations 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 president at the time. Taiwan has remained outside the United Nations ever since. Taiwan today claims effective jurisdiction only over Taiwan, the archipelagos of Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, and some smaller islands. The ROC also claims disputed islands in the East China Sea and South China Sea. On Taiwan, the KMT maintained authoritarian one-party rule until 1987, when it began allowing political liberalization. Current President Tsai Ing-wen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was founded in 1986. Taiwan held its first direct parliamentary election in 1992 and its first direct presidential election in 1996. President Tsai's May 2016 inauguration marked Taiwan's third peaceful transfer of political power from one party to another. In 2016, the ht

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