Uncle Sam hasn't abandoned Taiwan

Apparently, Obama did not stress the 1979 act that promises U.S. help in Taiwan's self-defense against attack from the mainland as the most important of the four documents always cited as collectively forming the foundation of U.S. China policy. All of his five predecessors — Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — have never failed to mention that Congress-initiated act signed after Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.

But that does not mean Uncle Sam has given up Taiwan. For one thing, the one-China principle is part of all four documents, including the Shanghai communique of 1972, Carter's December 1978 normalization agreement with Beijing, the aforementioned 1979 act and the August 17, 1982 communique limiting U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

The Shanghai communique, signed while President Chiang Kai-shek was alive and Taipei enjoyed diplomatic relations with Washington, “acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China.”

“The United States Government,” the communique states, “does not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves. With this prospect in mind, it affirms the ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all U.S. forces and military installations on Taiwan as the tension in the area diminishes.”

Carter's normalization agreement reiterates the Shanghai communique, while President Reagan stated the 1982 communique was predicated on the assumption that the People's Republic agreed to a peaceful solution to the Taiwan issue. Moreover, in 1992, Taipei and Beijing reached a tacit agreement under which both acknowledges there is but one China, whose connotation can be individually and orally expressed. This principle of one China with different interpretations is commonly known as the 1992 Consensus. President Obama may have meant the 1992 Consensus when he repeated the one-China principle in Beijing.

The omission of mention was strategic. Obama wanted to make his host feel more comfortable. China and the United States are locked in an uneasy economic co-dependence. The world's largest economy and China, which is expected to replace Japan as the second largest, have become inextricably intertwined, while Uncle Sam has his hands full trying to extricate himself from Iraq and Afghanistan. China is America's top creditor. Beijing can try to wreck the American economy by dumping U.S. Treasury securities and move to influence U.S. policy on Taiwan.

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