t to the AIT is the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office. For more than 20 years, six presidential administrations of both parties have linked foreign policy success in east Asia to the ability of the United States to maintain official, de jure relations with the People's Republic of China, while at the same time maintaining vital, yet unofficial links with Taiwan, which, by 1999, had become the seventh largest market for U.S. exports and the United States' fifth largest foreign agricultural market. Indeed, commitment for the continued unofficial relations between the United States and Taiwan through the Taiwan Relations Act was recognized by the United States Senate, which, marking the 20th anniversary of the Act, unanimously passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 17, resolving that the United States should reaffirm its commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act and the specific guarantees of provision of legitimate defense articles to Taiwan, called for in the Act. The fourth component that currently underpins Sino-American relations, for the purpose of this analysis, is the U.S. - People's Republic of China Joint Communiqu of August 17, 1982.In this document, both the United States and the People's Republic of China confirmed that one of the conditions of formal recognition between the two states was, and would continue to be, United States' continued maintenance of cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the peoples of Taiwan. Through the communiqu, the United States clearly asserted that it had no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity, or interfering in China's internal affairs or, most importantly, "…pursuing a policy of "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan." To that end, the United States further declared that it would not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan and that it intended to gradually reduce its sales of arms to Taiwan, "...
