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1 1 (November 29, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govehgz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Serv c informing the Iegislative debatw since 1914 Taiwan: Political and Security Is 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 diplomatic ties with self-ruled Taiwan, over which the PRC claims sovereignty. The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA, P.L. 96-8; 22 U.S.C. §§3301 et seq.), provides a legal basis for this unofficial bilateral relationship. It also includes commitments related to Taiwan's security. See also 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 (CPC), the ROC's then-ruling party, the Kuomintang (KMT), moved the ROC government to Taiwan. The KMT continued to assert that the ROC was the sole legitimate government of all China until 1991. In 1971, 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 remains outside the U.N. today. Figure I. Taiwan Sources: Graphic by CRS. Map generated by Hannah Fischer using data from NGA (2017); DoS (2015); Esri (2014); DeLorme (2014). The KMT maintained authoritarian one-party rule on Taiwan until 1987, when it yielded to public pressure for 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. In sues Updated November 29, 2021 2020, Tsai won a second four-year term and her party retained its majority in Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan. In her October 10, 2021, national day address, Tsai called on Taiwan's people to renew four commitments: to a free and democratic constitutional system, that the ROC and PRC should not be subordinate to each other, to resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty, and that Taiwan's future must be decided in accordance with the will of the Taiwanese people. U.S. Commitments Reated to Taiwan The PRC seeks to enforce a one China principle, which defines Taiwan as part of China, and the PRC as the sole legal government representing China. The United States adheres to its own one-China policy, guided by the TRA, U.S.-PRC joint communiquds concluded in 1972, 1978, and 1982; and Six Assurances that President Ronald Reagan communicated to Taiwan in 1982. (The Trump Administration first moved the TRA ahead of the joint communiques in the recitation of U.S. policy.) The U.S. government's long-standing position has been that Taiwan's political status remains unresolved. President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. has sent mixed messages about his view of Taiwan's political status. The PRC readout of his November 15, 2021, virtual meeting with PRC President Xi Jinping reported that Biden told Xi, the U.S. does not support 'Taiwan independence.' President Bill Clinton was the first U.S. President to make such a statement, intended to signal that the United States is not actively encouraging Taiwan to formalize a status as a sovereign nation separate from China. A senior Biden Administration official confirmed that Taiwan independence is not something that the United States supports. On November 16, however, President Biden said of Taiwan, It's independent. It makes its own decisions. Asked to clarify those comments, Biden said both, we are not encouraging independence and they have to decide. 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.) * 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. * The President is directed to inform the Congress promptly of any threat to the security or the social or economic system of the people on Taiwan and any danger to the interests of the United States arising therefrom. The President and the Congress shall determine, ... appropriate action by the United States in response to any such danger.

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