Six Assurances

The Six Assurances are a set of pledges conveyed by the Reagan administration to Taiwan in July 1982, intended to reassure Taipei as Washington simultaneously negotiated the August 17, 1982 U.S.–PRC Joint Communiqué on arms sales. Together with the Taiwan Relations Act (1979) and the three U.S.–PRC Joint Communiqués (1972, 1979, 1982), they form one of the pillars of U.S. policy toward Taiwan.

The six commitments are that the United States would:

• not set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan;
• not hold prior consultations with the People's Republic of China on arms sales to Taiwan;
• not play a mediation role between Taipei and Beijing;
• not revise the Taiwan Relations Act;
• not alter its position regarding sovereignty over Taiwan; and
• not pressure Taiwan to enter into negotiations with the PRC.

Originally communicated privately, the assurances were referenced in congressional testimony and were progressively declassified. The State Department released a partially declassified cable describing them in 2019–2020 under the Trump administration. In May 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H. Con. Res. 88 affirming the Six Assurances and the Taiwan Relations Act as cornerstones of U.S.–Taiwan relations.

The assurances are deliberately framed in the negative — as constraints on U.S. behavior rather than guarantees of action — and they do not constitute a defense commitment. Their political weight has grown as cross-Strait tensions have intensified, and successive administrations (Obama, Trump, Biden) have publicly reaffirmed them. Beijing rejects the Six Assurances as inconsistent with the Joint Communiqués and the One China principle, while Taipei treats them as a key indicator of U.S. reliability. Together with strategic ambiguity, they shape the contested space within which U.S. arms sales, transit visits by Taiwanese leaders, and official contacts are calibrated.