Six Assurances of 1982

The Six Assurances of 1982 are a set of six pledges the Reagan administration transmitted to the Republic of China (Taiwan) on 14 July 1982, immediately before the United States and the People's Republic of China concluded the third of the three Sino-American Joint Communiqués — the so-called August 17 Communiqué (1982), in which Washington stated it intended gradually to reduce its arms sales to Taiwan. Taipei feared that this commitment to Beijing signalled abandonment, so the assurances were delivered to President Chiang Ching-kuo through the American Institute in Taiwan to clarify the limits of the U.S. concession. Together with the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 (Public Law 96-8) and the three communiqués, the Six Assurances form one of the conceptual pillars of U.S. policy across the Taiwan Strait.

The six commitments were that the United States: (1) had not agreed to set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan; (2) had not agreed to consult with the PRC on such sales; (3) would not play a mediation role between Taipei and Beijing; (4) had not agreed to revise the Taiwan Relations Act; (5) had not altered its position regarding sovereignty over Taiwan — i.e. it did not formally recognise Chinese sovereignty over the island; and (6) would not exert pressure on Taiwan to negotiate with the PRC. The assurances thus qualified the apparently pro-Beijing thrust of the August 17 Communiqué, and Reagan privately recorded that any reduction in arms sales was conditioned on the PRC's continued peaceful approach toward Taiwan — linking the communiqué's pledge to a peaceful-resolution premise.

For decades the assurances remained quietly diplomatic, but they have been progressively formalised. In May 2016 the U.S. House of Representatives passed Concurrent Resolution 88, and the Senate adopted S.Con.Res. 38, affirming both the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances as cornerstones of U.S.–Taiwan relations. In 2019 the State Department declassified the underlying cables, including the Reagan memorandum tying arms-sale reductions to a peaceful PRC posture. As of 2026 the Six Assurances continue to be cited routinely in U.S. arms-sale notifications and congressional statements, alongside the TRA and the "One China policy," which Washington distinguishes from Beijing's "One China principle."

For the China Foreign Policy paper and general-studies international-relations sections, the Six Assurances are tested as the counterweight to the three communiqués: candidates should be able to enumerate them, date them to July 1982, and link them to the August 17 Communiqué and the Taiwan Relations Act. A common question angle contrasts the U.S. "One China policy" (strategic ambiguity, no formal recognition of PRC sovereignty over Taiwan) with the PRC's "One China principle," and asks how instruments like the assurances sustain unofficial but substantive U.S.–Taiwan ties. Examiners also probe the 2016 congressional reaffirmation and the 2019 declassification as evidence of their enduring legal-political weight.