The Future of United States, China, and Taiwan Relations

Relations across the Taiwan Strait were unstable for decades before May 2008. Several acknowledged "crises" raised the possibility of war between China and the US and/or Taiwan and at times political disputes wracked the US-Taiwan relationship. Nevertheless, the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1979 helped maintain peace by deterring coercive actions by China against the island.

CHENG-YI LIN Executive Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies (CAPAS) and Research Fellow in the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica in Taiwan
DENNY ROY Senior Fellow in the Research Program at the East-West Center, Hawaii