USA-ROC Mutual Defense Treaty


Mutual Defense Treaty
between the
USA and ROC

entered into force: March 3, 1955




Office/Agency: US Congress
title: Legal status of Formosa and the Pescadores
date: Feb. 1955
subject: 1955 Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of China
item: In conjunction with the review of the 1955 Mutual Defense Treaty, the US Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations issued a Report on Feb. 8, 1955 which discussed the international legal status of Formosa and the Pescadores.

Excerpt from Feb. 8, 1955 Report
Formosa became the seat of the National Government of the Republic of China in December 1949. By the peace treaty of September 8, 1951, signed with the United States and other powers, Japan renounced "all right, title, and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores." The treaty did not specify the nation to which such right, title, and claim passed. Although the Republic of China was not a signatory to the treaty it and the parties at the conference expressly recognized that it did not dispose finally of Formosa and the Pescadores. The Republic of China concluded a separate peace treaty with Japan on April 27, 1952, "on the same or substantially the same terms" as specified in Article 26 of the Japanese treaty.


. . . . .


It is the view of the Committee that the coming into force of the present treaty will not modify or affect the existing legal status of Formosa and the Pescadores."

To avoid any possibility of misunderstanding on this aspect of the treaty, the committee decided it would be useful to include in this report the following statement:
It is the understanding of the Senate that nothing in the treaty shall be construed as affecting or modifying the legal status or sovereignty of the territories to which it applies.






REFERENCE
Report on Mutual Defense Treaty with the Republic of China,
Appendix 17
US Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations (1955)














One-China Policy and Taiwan






  Subject: Mutual Defense Treaty, 1955  


Excerpt from p. 38
In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and his R.O.C. government fled to the island of Taiwan after defeat at the hand of Chinese Communists. In 1954, in order to defend Chiang Kai-shek and Taiwan against the possible invasion by the P.R.C. government, the U.S. government and the R.O.C. government signed a mutual defense treaty. (FN: 170)

The conclusion of the Mutual Defense Treaty did not effect a transfer of the island of Taiwan to China, according to U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. In February 1955, Dulles, urging the U.S. Senate to ratify the Treaty, rejected a suggestion that signing a mutual defense agreement with R.O.C. President Chiang Kai-shek would change the legal status of Formosa and the Pescadores and give the Nationalists (the R.O.C. government) sovereignty over them. Dulles said that the Eisenhower administration "does not regard the sovereignty of Formosa and the Pescadores as . . . settled and the [Mutual Defense] Treaty would not give General Chiang sovereignty over these islands." (FN: 171)

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Senator Walter F. George, asserts the committee's "understanding" of the treaty as follows: "Senate approval of the Treaty would neither strengthen nor weaken the Chiang Government's [sic] claim to sovereignty over Formosa, the international status of which is yet to be decided."(FN: 172)





    footnotes
(170) See Mutual Defense Treaty, Dec. 2, 1954, U.S.-China (the R.O.C. government), 6 U.S.T. 433.
(171) James Reston, New Formosa Bid,  N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 7, 1955, at A1.
(172) William S. White, Senate Approves Formosa Treaty,  N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 10, 1955, at A1.



Termination of the Treaty

Although the USA-ROC Mutual Defense Treaty had no time limit, Article 10 stipulated that either party could terminate the treaty one year after notifying the other party. Accordingly, in late December 1978, US President Jimmy Carter notified the ROC government authorities on Taiwan of his intention to break diplomatic relations with the ROC on Dec. 31, 1978, and to terminate the MDT effective January 1, 1980.

On January 1, 1979, the United States established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in Beijing. Although the USA-ROC Mutual Defense Treaty was terminated effective January 1, 1980, the Taiwan Relations Act was retroactively entered into force on January 1, 1979.







REFERENCE

One-China Policy and Taiwan

by Y. Frank Chiang
Fordham International Law Journal  Vol. 28:1, December 2004

This 87-page article may be downloaded from
the Vol 28, Iss. 1 page of the
Fordham International Law Journal website






Chinese language version





[English version]   https://www.twdefense.info/trust3/treaty-mutualdef.html
[Chinese version]   https://www.twdefense.info/trust3/treaty-mutualdefch.html