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US lawmakers push bill to codify 'Six Assurances' to Taiwan, 'political stunt to deceive DPP'

Global Times

By Chen Qingqing and Shen Sheng Published: May 17, 2025 12:15 AM

In another provocative move aimed at undermining China's sovereignty and regional stability, US House of Representatives members on Thursday local time proposed a bipartisan bill to codify the so-called "Six Assurances" to Taiwan. Experts reached by the Global Times slammed the move as a deliberate attempt by some US politicians to revive the long-debunked notion that "Taiwan's status is undetermined" as well as a political stunt to deceive secessionist DPP authorities.

Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi and five co-sponsors introduced the so-called "Six Assurances to Taiwan Act," a bill that would formally enshrine the pledges as official US policy, the Taiwan News hyped on Friday.

The legislation also establishes a congressional review mechanism to ensure that no future administration can alter these principles without congressional approval, the report claimed.

The so-called "Six Assurances," which were given by former US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, include pledges not to set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan, not to hold prior consultations with the Chinese mainland regarding arms sales to Taiwan, and not to play a mediation role between the mainland and the island, according to local media report.

The US House of Representatives and the Senate passed a joint resolution in 2016 stating that the so-called "Six Assurances" and the so-called "Taiwan Relations Act" are the cornerstones of US-Taiwan relations. However, these so-called assurances have never been formally written into US law.

Shortly following China-US high-level meeting on economic and trade affairs in Geneva that achieved substantial progress by significantly reducing bilateral tariff levels, some anti-China forces of the US Congress took actions to stir up trouble and disrupt the progress of bilateral relations by hollowing out the one-China principle. This sent a wrong signal to the separatist forces for "Taiwan independence," Zheng Jian, a professor at the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"With Lai Ching-te approaching the one-year anniversary of taking office, some US lawmakers -- who have benefited from the secessionist DPP's flatter -- are now repaying by pushing such provocative move," Zheng said, explaining the motivation behind this bill.

The Global Times noticed that the news about the bill was widely covered and hyped by local media in Taiwan. However, apart from the US Congress official website where the bill can be seen, the Global Times did not find any mainstream American media outlets covering it as of press time.

Zheng noted that the recent remarks from the US President Donald Trump following the trade agreement -- particularly his mention of "unification" -- sparked significant anxiety among secessionist forces in Taiwan and deeply unsettled Lai. The island is highly sensitive to the implications of such statements, which could explain the intensive hypes of Taiwan media.

The introduction of the bill is essentially a political stunt aimed at fueling the "Taiwan status is undetermined" narrative and deceiving secessionist DPP authorities. This claim represents a blatant interference in China's sovereignty and internal affairs, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.

Wang Jianmin, a research fellow at the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that the bill is a political manipulation of some anti-China American politicians, who are attempting to use Taiwan to contain China. However, this tactic will not work.

In a press briefing in April 2024, Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, pointed out that the US "Taiwan Relations Act" and "Six Assurances" seriously violate the one-China principle, the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques, and the basic norms of international relations, and grossly interfere in China's internal affairs.

The spokesperson also called them "entirely wrong, illegal, and invalid," saying that the Chinese government has consistently and resolutely opposed them from the outset.