The US’ enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) in 1979 made then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) “very cocky,” then-Chinese vice premier Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) told Washington at the time, according to declassified US government documents.
Then-US president Jimmy Carter on Dec. 15, 1978, announced that the US would be changing diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (ROC) to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as of Jan. 1, 1979.
The announcement caused anger and triggered protests by Taiwanese at home and abroad.
The US Congress later proposed the TRA, which Carter signed into law on April 10, 1979, to provide legal basis for unofficial relations between Taiwan and the US, and for Washington’s commitment to helping Taiwan maintain its self-defense capability.
However, the act angered Beijing, the files declassified by the US Department of State show.
Deng complained about the TRA to then-US vice president Walter Mondale at a meeting in Beijing in 1979, they show.
“I only want to tell you that in your various dealings with them [the ROC] that it has tended to make Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) very cocky. It has caused his tail to raise very high,” the files quote Deng as saying to Mondale.
“I will report that to the president, and we will try to make him less cocky,” Mondale said, referring to Chiang, the documents show.
The TRA specifies US policy on the Taiwan issue, which is to preserve and promote extensive, close and friendly commercial, cultural and other relations between Americans and Taiwanese, and to declare that peace and stability in the region are in the US’ political, security and economic interests.
Any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, will be regarded as a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the US, according to the act.
It also states that the US is committed to providing Taiwan with arms of a defensive nature and to maintaining the capacity of the US to resist any resort to force that would jeopardize the security of the people in Taiwan.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS