From "Strategic Ambiguity" To "Strategic Clarity"

The Taiwan Problem has become one of the main focuses influencing the security of East Asia since the Cold War because the United States and the People's Republic of China are its two key actors. The US had imposed a so-called strategic ambiguity policy on Taiwan Problem based on the three joint communiques between US and PRC and the Taiwan Relation Act ever since the establishment of the Sino-American diplomatic relations in 1972. During the Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996, the strategic ambiguity policy exposed its limitations, so the Clinton administration had to adjust its Taiwan policy, which is the beginning of the strategic clarity policy. After the G·W·Bush came to power, the policy had been developed deeper and tended to replace the former one. Applying the power balance theory, this paper reviews and analyzes the historical track of the development of the US Taiwan policy, and then prove that no matter what has been changed in the United Sates' policy toward Taiwan, the essential purpose of the US is to hold back the process of unitary of China and to constrain the development of China. At the end, the paper attempts to make a prediction for the future of the Taiwan Problem and give some suggestions for it.