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April 29, 2024
Taiwan's Position in the World
Introduction
Taiwan, the self-governing Asian democracy that also calls
itself the Republic of China (ROC), has struggled to
maintain international space for itself in the world. The
People's Republic of China (PRC), with its capital in
Beijing, has never controlled Taiwan, but claims
sovereignty over it and has vowed to unify with it, by
force if necessary. As part of its effort to pressure Taiwan to
accept unification, the PRC has spent decades seeking to
isolate Taiwan internationally.
The United States terminated diplomatic relations with the
ROC on January 1, 1979, in order to establish diplomatic
relations with the PRC. Following this diplomatic break,
Congress passed the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA, P.L.
96-8; 22 U.S.C. §§3301 et seq.). Section 4(d) of the TRA
offers U.S. support for Taiwan continuing to occupy one
form of international space: membership in international
organizations. The provision states, Nothing in this Act
may be construed as a basis for supporting the exclusion or
expulsion of Taiwan from continued membership in any
international financial institution or any other international
organization. Since a Taiwan policy review in 1994, U.S.
policy has been to support Taiwan's membership in
international organizations for which statehood is not a
requirement for membership, and to encourage meaningful
participation for Taiwan in organizations in which its
membership is not possible. Other major areas of U.S.
effort today include helping Taiwan shore up its remaining
diplomatic relationships and expand its unofficial
relationships around the world.
The Biden Administration has argued for a need to support
Taiwan's ability to contribute its valuable expertise to
address global challenges. Also driving U.S. government
efforts appears to be an assessment that efforts to broaden
and deepen international support for Taiwan could help
deter the PRC from seeking to absorb Taiwan by force. The
PRC alleges that, To help Taiwan expand its 'international
space,' the United States is, inducing other countries to
interfere in Taiwan affairs, and concocting Taiwan-related
bills that infringe upon the sovereignty of China. The PRC
charges that these and other U.S. efforts feed resistance in
Taiwan to peaceful unification-or in the PRC
government's words, incite separatist forces to create
tension and turmoil in cross-Straits [sic] relations.
Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, accuses
the PRC of having never ceased in its attempts to suppress
Taiwan's international space and acted with malign intent
to disrupt Taiwan's relations with diplomatic allies.
Taiwan' Dpomatic Partners
As a condition for establishing diplomatic relations, the
PRC requires all its diplomatic partners to agree to engage
with Taiwan only unofficially. As of April 2024, a dozen
countries are choosing to forego diplomatic relations with
the PRC and to recognize Taiwan diplomatically as the
ROC (see Figure 1). When Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen
took office in May 2016, Taiwan had 22 diplomatic
partners. Since then, 10 partners have switched diplomatic
recognition to the PRC: Sao Tome and Prfncipe (2016),
Panama (2017), Dominican Republic (2018), Burkina Faso
(2018), El Salvador (2018), Solomon Islands (2019),
Kiribati (2019), Nicaragua (2021), Honduras (2023), and
Nauru (2024). An eleventh partner, the Gambia, broke
relations with Taiwan in 2013 and established diplomatic
relations with the PRC in 2016, after Tsai's election but
before her inauguration.
Figure I. Taiwan's Diplomatic Partners (April 2024)
P I P Countries that recognize
Taiwan diplomatically as
the Republic of China
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Source: CRS graphic by Mari Y. Lee.
Taiwan relies on its diplomatic partners to advocate for it at
the United Nations and in other international fora from
which it is absent. Taiwan's diplomatic partners also
provide opportunities for Taiwan leaders to make official
trips abroad-and transit visits through the United States on
the outbound and inbound legs of such journeys. (See CRS
In Focus IF12371, Taiwan Presidents' U.S. Transit Visits.)
Although the U.S. government itself does not recognize
Taiwan diplomatically, it seeks to dissuade other countries
from breaking diplomatic relations with Taiwan. When
Nauru switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the
PRC in January 2024, a Department of State spokesperson
acknowledged the action as a sovereign decision, but said
it was nonetheless a disappointing one. In March 2024,](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/goveozw0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)