John Holdridge, Six Assurances, August 17, 1982

There is no formal document with the assurances the U.S. government gave to Taiwan in 1982. These are from the Congressional testimony of the top State Department official for East Asia. In 2015-16, the U.S. House and Senate passed resolutions affirming that the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances were key to U.S. policy toward Taiwan.

August 17, 1982

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs John Holdridge testified before Congress that the Reagan administration had conveyed the following “six assurances” to Taiwan’s government.

Source: Testimony by Assistant Secretary of State John Holdridge, U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Policy Toward China and Taiwan, 97th Cong., 2nd sess., August 17, 1982 (Washington: GPO, 1982), pp. 13-14.

1. [In negotiations with the PRC,] " ... we did not agree to set a date certain for ending arms sales to Taiwan";

2. " ... [W]e see no mediation role for the United States" [between Taiwan and the PRC];

3. " ... [N]or will we attempt to exert pressure on Taiwan to enter into negotiations with the PRC";

4. " ... [T]here has been no change in our longstanding position on the issue of sovereignty over Taiwan";

5. "We have no plans to seek" [revisions to the Taiwan Relations Act; and]

6 [The August 17 Joint Communiqué between the U.S. and the PRC] "should not be read to imply that we have agreed to engage in prior consultations with Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan."

Click here for a review of Holdridge’s Crossing the Divide: An Insider’s Account of Normalization of U.S.-China Relations.

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