Amid PRC coercion, Taiwan Relations Act supports peace, stability across Taiwan Strait

FORUM Staff

The message, delivered during recent face-to-face meetings between United States and People’s Republic of China (PRC) defense officials, has not changed: The U.S. remains committed to its longstanding “One China” policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).

Michael Chase, U.S. deputy assistant defense secretary for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, an international waterway key to global commerce, during January 2024 meetings in Washington, D.C., with Maj. Gen. Song Yanchao, deputy director of the PRC’s Central Military Commission office for international military cooperation.

The One China policy has not altered since 1979, when the U.S. acknowledged the PRC as the “sole legal government of China” but did not take a position on Taiwan’s status.

The TRA, the centerpiece of the U.S.’s relationship with Taiwan, marks its 45th anniversary April 10. The U.S. Congress approved the TRA, and then-President Jimmy Carter signed it into law after Washington said it would formalize diplomatic relations with the PRC. The act authorized economic and unofficial diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the U.S., noting that aggression and economic sanctions against the self-governed island would be viewed as a threat to peace in the Indo-Pacific and a “grave concern to the United States.”

The law offers reassurance to Taiwan and is intended to deter the PRC from invading the island, which Beijing claims as its territory and threatens to annex. The law specifies the U.S. will make available “defense articles and defense services” for Taiwan to “maintain a self-sufficient capability.” The U.S. is providing up to $2 billion a year in military aid to Taiwan through 2027 under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023.

The TRA also is designed “to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means.” Though the U.S. provides military aid to Taiwan, analysts note that Washington adheres to a policy of so-called strategic ambiguity as to whether it would intervene militarily in the event of an attack against the island.

Beijing’s attempts to bully Taiwan include gray-zone tactics such as deploying People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fighter planes near the island, firing ballistic missiles over Taiwan and staging major live-fire exercises around the island. In February 2024, for instance, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 14 PLA planes conducted “joint combat readiness patrols” with Chinese warships around the island, according to Reuters. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) coercion attempts also include bans on produce and seafood imports from Taiwan, and flying surveillance balloons near the island ahead of elections there.

The TRA anticipated such efforts by the CCP, analysts said. The law states that U.S. military aid is intended to assist Taiwan 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 of Taiwan.