In the 1970s, many western countries severed formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan and normalized relations with the People’s Republic of China. One of the major issues that those countries navigated was the scope and nature of their future relations with Taiwan, including the positions they adopted toward Taiwan’s legal status. While there has been considerable research on the diplomatic exchanges that took place between Washington, Taipei, and Beijing, the transatlantic and European dimensions of the Taiwan issue during this period of history have received less attention in the literature. This presentation will focus on how the United States, and the United Kingdom coordinated their positions on Taiwan while they were each negotiating with the People’s Republic of China, and it will examine how they subtly crafted the language of their joint communiqués with Beijing to avoid accepting the Chinese position on Taiwan. It will also discuss the contemporary implications of this period of history for U.S.-Taiwan-China relations and the heightened diplomatic tensions surrounding the legal status of Taiwan.

James Lee is an Assistant Research Fellow (Assistant Professor) at Academia Sinica in Taiwan, as well as a Senior Non-Resident Associate Fellow at the NATO Defense College and an affiliated researcher of the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. His research interests are in U.S. foreign policy and the security of Taiwan. His research has been published in EurAmerica, Business and Politics, the International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of East Asian Studies, and the Journal of Chinese Political Science.

For more information, please refer to the attached PDF

DATE: Wednesday, November 12, 2025

TIME: 17:45 – 19:15

LOCATION: SIN 1, at the Department for East Asian Studies/Chinese Studies, Altes AKH, Campus, Spitalgasse 2, Yard 2, Entrance 2.3