Taiwan arms sale raises question over US intentions on keeping promise made to China

Song Xiaozhuang points out that the US’ 1982 pledge about phasing out arms sales to Taipei remains just an agreement with China, not a law, unlike the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act

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Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump at a G20 summit meeting in Hamburg on July 7. Will the US now meet its international obligations under the 1982 ioint communiqué with China? Photo: Kyodo

Published: 10:30am, 23 Jul 2017Updated: 7:16pm, 23 Jul 2017

Media reported that in a telephone conversation on July 3, President Xi Jinping (習近平) urged President Donald Trump to honour the “one China” policy and stop selling arms to Taiwan. This issue has haunted Sino-US relations since diplomatic ties were established in 1979, and must be addressed.

In a 1982 US-China Joint Communiqué, the US pledged that it “does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan”; that such sales will not exceed the level of those supplied since the establishment of the diplomatic relationship with China, “and that it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution”. Yet, arms sales have continued, 35 years and five US presidents later.

Under common law, an anticipatory breach is where one party so acts or so expresses itself as to show that it does not mean to accept or perform the obligations as agreed. With regards to the arms sale, an argument can be made that there has been an anticipatory breach. Two facts back this up.

First, clearly the joint communiqué has not been fully implemented, as US arms sales to Taiwan have not come to an end.

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A line of US Patton tanks fire at targets during the annual Han Kuang exercises on Taiwan’s outlying Penghu Island, on May 25. Photo: AP