The Heritage Foundation released an article May 22, by Ambassador Harvey Feldman, Distinguished Fellow in China Policy in the Asian Studies Center. The article defines the Taiwan status quo. Fieldman states:
The Chinese government asserts something it calls "the sacred One China Principle" which, when it speaks to the people of Taiwan, goes like this: One China is the China that will be created by the necessary and inevitable unification of Taiwan with the mainland. But when China addresses an international audience, it goes like this: There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is a province of that China whose only lawful representative is "the people's government in Beijing." This is the formula used to block Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization and other international bodies. . .
In 1991, a dozen years after the U.S. switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing, the Taipei government stopped claiming to be the legitimate government of China and asked to be recognized only as the government of the territory it obviously controls, Taiwan and associated islands. But the government still calls itself, formally, "The Republic of China" (ROC for short), its name under a constitution written for all of China, adopted in Nanjing in 1947, and brought to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek in 1949. That constitution has been amended many times, for example to eliminate the seats of those who claimed to represent mainland districts not under ROC control since 1949, but it remains in force.
The U.S. regarded neither the amendments nor dropping the claim to be the legitimate government of all of China to be changes in the status quo--or at least not changes that merited some statement of displeasure. After all, it would be a bit difficult to insist that the ROC should maintain its claim to legally govern all of China when the U.S. recognizes another in that role. But were the Taipei government to call the mainland-issued 1947 constitution null and void, drop the name Republic of China, and call itself something simple and descriptive like "Taiwan," the U.S. would likely denounce these actions as a most grievous unilateral change in the status quo. China would regard it as intensely provocative.
Taiwan's two most recent presidents have frequently asserted that Taiwan is a state separate from China, sovereign and independent. But so long as this claim is not placed within a legal framework, Washington and Beijing have decided that, however galling, they can live with it.
. . . In 2005, China enshrined that threat in a piece of legislation known as "The Anti-Secession Law." But since everyone knows China does not decide its policies on the basis of law, this too was not considered a change in the status quo.
So what is the status quo? For that matter, what is Taiwan's status? The U.S. says it follows a "One China Policy." Does that mean it regards Taiwan as a Chinese province?
Actually, no. In fact, the U.S. makes no formal statement at all about Taiwan's status. In the communiqué establishing diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, the U.S. "acknowledged" the Chinese position that there is but one China of which Taiwan is a part. That word, "acknowledged," is diplomatic jargon meaning "we understand that is your claim.
Washington has never said it regards Taiwan as a PRC province. Nor, when various Taiwan spokesmen assert that the island republic is a separate, independent sovereignty, has the U.S. contradicted that claim. It is true that both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations have said they would not support Taiwan's membership in international organizations that admit only states. But in this, they appear not to have read American law carefully enough.
On the basis of Taiwan Relations Act, the author considers that Taiwan is a state. The status quo is " that, for all purposes other than the exchange of formal embassies and ambassadors, American law treats Taiwan as a state separate from the People's Republic of China." The author concludes
Clearly, there is nothing to be gained and much to be lost by needlessly provoking China by some form of words or pushing it into a situation in which it feels obliged to strike out militarily. But it would be useful for the U.S. government, as it seeks to maintain the status quo "as we define it," to review just how it is defined already in the Taiwan Relations Act.