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asia policy
and to the world at large. Under a bilateral trade and investment framework
agreement, the two governments are working to deepen economic ties and
remove barriers.
At Taiwan’s request, the United States has sought to find ways to expand
Taiwan’s contributions to the international community, despite China’s
persistent efforts to exclude it. Facilitating global training is a good example.
In June 2015 the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding creating
the Global Cooperation and Training Framework, whereby the United States
and Taiwan agreed to conduct training programs for various Asian experts
to assist their own countries in building capacities to tackle issues where
Taiwan has proven experience and advantages. Counterterrorism is another
example. In 2015, as a member of the coalition to counter the Islamic State
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Taiwan worked together with the United States to
deliver 350 prefabricated homes for displaced families in northern Iraq. 3
Finally, as with many other places around the world, over several
decades immigrants from Taiwan to the United States have created a
human American stake in Taiwan’s future. A significant number of people,
probably over one million, in the United States have connections to Taiwan
and contribute to American life in myriad ways. In 2015, Taiwan was the
United States’ seventh-largest source of international students, higher than
the more populous Japan, United Kingdom, or Germany. 4
It is when we move from economic, functional, and people-to-people
areas to the diplomatic and security arenas that U.S.-Taiwan relations
become “not so normal.” The United States does not recognize or have
diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (ROC) government in
Taipei but instead recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in
Beijing. Washington has an embassy in Beijing and conducts its ties with
Taiwan through a nominally private organization, the American Institute
in Taiwan, which is staffed by U.S. government employees.
This unique character applies to security as well, with the political
and military threat from China perceived by Taiwan closely binding the
island to the United States. The ROC fears that through force, coercion,
or intimidation, Beijing will compel the island to be incorporated into the
PRC. That fear only deepens as China’s military power and willingness to
accept risk grow. Under the rubric of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the
3 Thornton, testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.
4 Ibid.
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