“We’re going to continue to honour the one-China policy, as stated in the Taiwan Relations Act, also backed up by the three communiques and the six assurances,” Perdue said.
The Taiwan Relations Act was signed by then-president Jimmy Carter shortly after Washington switched official diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, and obligates the US government to support Taiwan’s defence capabilities.
However, it does not specifically articulate a one-China policy, which is spelled out in the first of the communiques – agreements between the US and China that formalised the diplomatic switch.
Perdue’s reference to the “six assurances” relates to commitments that Washington made to Taipei in 1982 that it would disregard Beijing’s opposition to US arms sales to the island.
