Establishment of China–US Diplomatic Relations
On 16 December 1978 (15 December in Washington) China and the United States simultaneously released a joint communiqué announcing that they would recognise each other and establish diplomatic relations from 1 January 1979. The US recognised the PRC government as the sole legal government of China, broke relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan, terminated the Mutual Defense Treaty and withdrew its forces, keeping only unofficial ties with Taiwan thereafter. The Chinese text has the US "recognising" China's position that there is one China and Taiwan is part of it, while the English text uses "acknowledges" — a difference still read in different ways. On the day relations began, the NPC Standing Committee issued its Message to Compatriots in Taiwan; Deng Xiaoping visited the US in early 1979, and in April Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act. In Taiwan the event is called the severance of ROC–US relations, against which Chiang Ching-kuo lodged "the most serious protest".
Background: From the Shanghai Communiqué to the Liaison Offices
For thirty years after 1949 the United States recognised the Republic of China government on Taiwan as the sole legal government of China, maintaining only intermittent contact with the People's Republic through channels such as the ambassadorial talks in Warsaw. Relations began to thaw when Richard Nixon and his aide Henry Kissinger pursued rapprochement, leading to Nixon's visit to China and the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972, and in 1973 the two countries opened liaison offices in each other's capitals. But the Watergate scandal in Nixon's second term, the collapse of South Vietnam and opposition from conservatives in Congress made normalisation hard to pursue under Gerald Ford.
The Negotiations
After taking office in 1977, Jimmy Carter sent Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to China that August and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski in May 1978. According to the PRC Foreign Ministry, Brzezinski said Carter had resolved to normalise relations within his first term and that the United States would accept China's three conditions: breaking relations with the Taiwan authorities, terminating the Mutual Defense Treaty and withdrawing US forces from Taiwan. In early July 1978 Leonard Woodcock, head of the US Liaison Office in Beijing, began normalisation talks with the Chinese side; Taiwan was the key issue.
Some questions remained unresolved: Washington hoped China would use only peaceful means on Taiwan, while Beijing insisted the matter was China's internal affair. According to the Foreign Ministry, in the end each side issued its own statement on this point.
The Normalisation Communiqué
On the morning of 16 December 1978 in Beijing (the evening of the 15th in Washington) the two sides simultaneously released the joint communiqué, which Carter read out in a televised address from the White House. It announced that the two countries would recognise each other and establish diplomatic relations from 1 January 1979 and exchange ambassadors and open embassies on 1 March; the United States recognised the PRC government as the sole legal government of China, and "within this context, the people of the United States will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan". On Taiwan's status, the English text says the US government "acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China", while the Chinese text uses chengren, usually rendered "recognises". In his address Carter said the United States would "continue to have an interest in the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue".
The United States then broke relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan, announced the termination of the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty, and undertook to withdraw its forces and military installations from Taiwan by 1 April 1979. In Taipei, Leonard Unger, the US ambassador to the Republic of China, informed Chiang Ching-kuo in the early hours of 16 December, and Chiang at once lodged "the most serious protest".
After Normalisation
On 1 January 1979 the NPC Standing Committee issued its Message to Compatriots in Taiwan, announcing that the PLA would stop shelling Jinmen and other islands from that day and proposing that air and postal links across the Strait be established "as soon as possible". From 29 January to 4 February Deng Xiaoping visited the United States — the first visit by a PRC leader — and the two sides signed agreements on science and technology, culture and other fields; according to the State Department's Office of the Historian, Deng told Carter of China's intention to attack Vietnam, and Carter tried unsuccessfully to dissuade him. On 1 March the two countries opened embassies.
On 10 April Carter signed the Taiwan Relations Act passed by Congress, which provides for the United States to "provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character" and to conduct unofficial relations with Taiwan through the American Institute in Taiwan. PRC leaders repeatedly expressed displeasure with the law; in Taiwan it came to be seen as the main legal basis for its security and its relations with the United States after the break.
Narrative Comparison
| Source | Narrative |
|---|---|
| PRC Foreign Ministry account; NPC Standing Committee, Message to Compatriots in Taiwan (1979) | Beijing presents normalisation as the result of Washington's acceptance of China's three conditions — breaking with the Taiwan authorities, terminating the Mutual Defense Treaty and withdrawing US forces. The Foreign Ministry also notes that the US hoped China would use only peaceful means on Taiwan, whereas "China stressed that how to resolve the Taiwan question was China's internal affair, brooking no outside interference", and judges that these unresolved issues showed the US "had not entirely given up its designs to interfere in China's internal affairs". The Message to Compatriots in Taiwan issued on the day relations began set normalisation alongside the China–Japan peace treaty as a "trend that no one can stop", and called for air and postal links across the Strait. |
| President Carter's address to the nation (15 December 1978); US State Department Office of the Historian | Announcing normalisation, Carter said the United States did "not undertake this important step for transient tactical or expedient reasons". "As the United States asserted in the Shanghai Communique of 1972," he said, "we will continue to have an interest in the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue. I have paid special attention to ensuring that normalization of relations between our country and the People's Republic will not jeopardize the well-being of the people of Taiwan", with Americans maintaining commercial, cultural, trade and other ties with Taiwan "through nongovernmental means". The State Department's Office of the Historian stresses that the US had never before had formal relations with the PRC, and that normalisation "provided both sides with the essential diplomatic mechanisms necessary to manage difficulties and promote common objectives". |
| Executive Yuan historical materials; Chiang Ching-kuo's diary (as reported by the Central News Agency, 2019) | In Taiwan the event is known as the severance of ROC–US relations. The Executive Yuan's historical materials record that after the US announced recognition of the Communists and the break with the Republic of China, "President Chiang Ching-kuo immediately lodged a serious protest", and Premier Sun Yun-suan issued a solemn statement against the Communists' ensuing united-front campaign; after the break, "to safeguard Taiwan's security and keep commercial (including arms sales) and cultural relations from being cut off", Congress enacted the Taiwan Relations Act. In his diary that day Chiang wrote "as expected", that he had "at once lodged the most serious protest in a stern manner", and that "inwardly in pain, bearing heavy responsibility, I can only handle it rationally and first reassure the people". |
| Richard C. Bush, A One-China Policy Primer (Brookings, 2017) | Richard Bush, a scholar and former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, argues that the communiqué meant the United States "effectively accepted" that the PRC government was the sole legal government of China, but "took a more ambiguous position" on whether Taiwan is part of China: by only acknowledging "the Chinese position", it "did not adopt [it] as its own". "The one flaw in this interpretation", he writes, "is that U.S. diplomats allowed the PRC side to use the stronger verb, 'recognize,' in the Chinese text"; the Carter administration "claimed with justification that the English text was binding, but any PRC or Taiwan citizen who read the communiqué in their own language would believe that Washington had gone further than it said it did". |
Key Milestones
- Shanghai Communiqué issued
Issued during Nixon's visit, beginning the thaw in relations.
- Normalisation communiqué released
Released simultaneously on the morning of the 16th in Beijing and the evening of the 15th in Washington; Chiang Ching-kuo lodges "the most serious protest".
- Diplomatic relations established
The two countries recognise each other; the NPC Standing Committee issues its Message to Compatriots in Taiwan and the PLA stops shelling Jinmen.
- Deng Xiaoping visits the United States
Through 4 February — the first visit by a PRC leader.
- Embassies opened
The two countries exchange ambassadors and open embassies.
- Taiwan Relations Act becomes law
Carter signs the act, maintaining unofficial ties with Taiwan and providing defensive arms.
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