Formal recognition or no, the US Code treats Taiwan as it does all other "foreign countries, nations, states, governments, or similar entities." For US legal purposes, at least, Taiwan is indeed a state.
Moreover, given that Taiwan possesses "a permanent population; a defined territory; government; and capacity to enter into relations with the other states," it meets the description of a "state" under the 1933 Montevideo Convention (which the US ratified on June 29, 1934).
This precise point -- that Taiwan is, de facto, a state in the international community, despite the fact that the US does not recognize de jure that Taiwan is independent -- was at the heart of the State Department's alarmed demarche to the UN barely two months ago.
It now appears that the US government is finally returning to its "long standing" position that Taiwan's sovereignty is "unsettled."
This is infinitely preferable to the slippery slope to Chinese sovereignty that begins with the declaration: "Taiwan is not a state in the international community."
Once Americans get into the habit of thinking of Taiwan's "sovereignty" as "undetermined," it is just a short distance to the question: "Who has sovereignty over Taiwan if not the people of Taiwan?"
Ultimately, the people of Taiwan must determine their own future. But now is not the time for Taiwan to leap into such a decision without careful preparation or without close consultation with its most important friends.
Now is the time for Taiwan to reeducate the international community that the idea that Taiwan is an "integral part of the People's Republic of China" is, as the State Department told the UN, "not universally held by UN member states, including the United States."
John Tkacik is a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
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