Taiwan Relations Act

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The Taiwan Relations Act is an act of the United States Congress passed in 1979 after the establishment of relations with the People's Republic of China and the breaking of relations between the United States and the Republic of China on Taiwan by President Jimmy Carter.

The act authorizes quasi-diplomatic relations with the ROC government by giving special powers to the American Institute in Taiwan to the level it is the de facto embassy, and states that any international obligations previously made between the ROC and U.S. prior to 1979 unless otherwise terminated. One agreement that was unilaterally terminated by President Carter upon the establishment of relations was the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, and its termination by Carter was the subject of the Supreme Court case Goldwater v. Carter.

The act defines the term "Taiwan" includes, as the context may require, the islands of Formosa (the main Island) and the Pescadores. Thus, the act does not apply to Kinmen or Matsu.

The act stipulates that the United States will "consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area are of grave concern to the United States" but does not mandate that the United States intervene in these situations.

This act also requires the United States "to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character", and "to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan." However, it does not necessarily require the United States to take any military action against the PRC in the event of an attack. The Taiwan Relations Act has been used by successive U.S. administrations to justify arms sales to the ROC, despite adopting One-China Policy, which is not exactly the same as the PRC's. However, many analysts recognize that as U.S.-Chinese policy continues to become more intertwined and collaborative in approach, the interpretation of TRA by U.S. policymakers will likely revert back to its original intentions, and more-closely bind to the Three Communiques and the One-China Policy.

The PRC consistently does not recognize the legitimacy of the Taiwan Relations Act as it is viewed by them as "an unwarranted intrusion by the United States into the internal affairs of China."^{[citation needed]} Comparatively, President Reagan of the United States, despite having "acknowledged" the PRC's position regarding Taiwan, declared that "the United States would not formally recognize Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan" as part of the Six Assurances announced in 1982. In the late 1990s, the United States Congress passed a non-binding resolution stating that relations between Taiwan and the United States will be honored through the TRA first. This resolution, which puts greater weight on the TRA's value over that of the three communiques, was signed by President Clinton as well.^{[citation needed]}