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1 1 (January 21, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govbcyw0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 01;0i E.$~ & p\w -- , gnom goo mppm qq\ , q I aS 11LIANJILiN, Updated January 21, 2020 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. 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 issues related to Taiwan's economy, see CRS In Focus IF10256, U.S.-Taiwan Trade Relations, by Karen M. Sutter. 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 Sources: 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 leader at the time. Taiwan has remained outside the United Nations ever since. Taiwan today claims effective jurisdiction over Taiwan, the archipelagos of Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, and some smaller islands. It also claims disputed islands in the East and South China Seas. On Taiwan, the KMT maintained authoritarian one-party rule until 1987, when popular pressure forced it to allow political liberalization. Taiwan held its first direct parliamentary election in 1992 and its first direct presidential election in 1996. 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. In 2016, the DPP also ended the KMT's previously unbroken control of Taiwan's legislature, the Legislative Yuan. :220 Mkc<tion , In elections on January 11, 2020, President Tsai clinched a second four-year term with the most votes for a presidential candidate since Taiwan began direct elections, winning 57.1% of the presidential vote to KMT candidate and Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu's 38.6%. Her party, the DPP, retained control of the legislature. The results have empowered Tsai to move forward with an agenda that includes demanding respect from China for what she calls Taiwan's separate identity. Months of protests in Hong Kong likely contributed to Tsai's wide margin of victory, with voters seeing events in the PRC Special Administrative Region as vindicating Tsai's wariness of the PRC. Her chief rival, Han, favored closer PRC ties. With a loss of 7 seats, the DPP now controls 61 seats in the 113- seat legislature. The KMT controls 38 seats, a gain of 3 seats. Three smaller parties control a combined 9 seats and independents control 5 seats. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo congratulated Tsai on her win and applauded her commitment to maintaining cross-Strait stability in the face of unrelenting pressure. PRC State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed the significance of what he called a local election in Taiwan, asserting, The rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and reunification across the Taiwan Strait is an invincible trend of history. The Trump Administration has sought to strengthen and deepen bilateral relations with Taiwan, including by hosting a May 2019 meeting between the U.S. and Taiwan National Security Advisors, reportedly the first such meeting in the era of unofficial relations. In September 2019 congressional testimony, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell signaled, however, that the Trump Administration remains committed to the fundamental post-1979 framework of U.S.-Taiwan relations, under which the United States maintains official relations with the PRC and unofficial ties with Taiwan, while upholding the TRA. (This U.S. one- .... ......... ............................ ................ ............................ ........... ............... .......................... Tai .......... .............. ............. 'alWi ............. ....... ............... ............. .. .......... .......... ... .............. . ............ 50 XXXXXXXXXXXX, ............... .... ............. ......................... ......................... ............. ........ .................. .......................... .................. ............................. .. ............... .............. \ . ............ .................. 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