Forty years after the US chose Beijing over Taipei as a diplomatic ally, US-Taiwan relations could not be stronger

Diplomatically speaking, relations between the US and China are “official” and those between the US and Taiwan are “unofficial”. But this does not prevent Washington and Beijing from seeing each other as major adversaries and rivals while Washington and Taipei treat each other as trusted friends and allies. This is despite Washington switching its diplomatic recognition of China from Taipei to Beijing 40 years ago.

The US-China relationship is now often deemed the world’s most important and complicated bilateral relationship, featuring both deep and wide engagement and intense competition. In comparison, since the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act four decades ago, the US-Taiwan relationship has never been stronger.

To anchor America’s de facto diplomatic relations with Taiwan in the wake of the US resumption of ties with the People’s Republic on January 1, 1979, then US president Jimmy Carter signed into law the Taiwan Relations Act in April that year. The law has allowed the US to continue with the role it took in the Sino-American Mutual Defence Treaty between Washington and Taipei, which was abrogated after the diplomatic switch.

Since then, the Taiwan Relations Act and the “three communiqués” – the trio of joint statements that formed the basis of modern US-China relations – have guided the complicated triangle of relations between the US, China and Taiwan.

It’s worth noting that, under the US legal system, a law overrides any diplomatic document the administration has signed with a foreign government. The core of the Taiwan Relations Act is to oblige the US administration to help maintain peace, stability and security across the narrow strait separating the self-ruled island and mainland China.