The United States and Cross-Taiwan Strait Relations after 1979

This essay firstly introduces the institutional development of two sets of intertwined bilateral relations: US-PRC and US-ROC. Then, in order to understand these relations from a more formal perspective, historically important documents and pledges of the US and the practice or lack of US (vice) presidential visits are highlighted. Three conclusions are: (1) US relations with the PRC and with the ROC have been largely defined by the US’s and the PRC’s strategic circumstances and their respective top leaders’ ideologies or beliefs, whereas the ROC has had little capacity to act in this context; (2) the US has been ambivalent in its definition of “one China” but has always been unsupportive of the Taiwan independence movement while expressing its “one China” policy; and (3) the US, always refusing to position itself as a mediator, has remained the only and the most significant third party in the Taiwan Strait.