Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-06-07

President Tsai Ing-wen said that she hopes the Donald Trump administration will

President Tsai Ing-wen (right) meets Wednesday with Admiral Samuel Locklear (left), part of a visiting delegation from US think tank The National Bureau of Asian Research. (CNA)

stick to the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances in aiding Taiwan’s defense. She was speaking with a visiting delegation from the US think tank The National Bureau of Asian Research on Wednesday.

The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) forms the basis of Taiwan’s relationship with the United States in the absence of diplomatic ties. Notably, the TRA requires the US to supply Taiwan with “arms of a defensive character”. It also says the US must maintain the capacity to “resist any resort to force” that would jeopardize Taiwan.

The Six Assurances are pledges that US President Ronald Reagan made in 1982. Under those assurances, the US State Department says that the United States does not “formally recognize the People’s Republic of China’s sovereignty over Taiwan.”
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