Please write an essay in which you respond to the following prompt. Your essay should be approximately 4-5 double-spaced pages long (using 12 point font with 1 inch margins). What benefits did US-PRC...

By the late 1960s, both the PRC and the US had realized that the strategic situation in Asia had altered and that their geopolitical interests were no longer fundamentally at odds. Not only did Jimmy Carter and Deng Xiaoping confirm this judgment, but they also recognized a foundation for economic cooperation. Before normalization, however, the formal US-ROC connection persisted. Deng Xiaoping stressed that it had to stop before ties between the PRC and the US could return to normal. The Carter administration agreed to satisfy that criterion in principle.
The December 15/16, 1978, normalization agreement addressed the "Taiwan barriers" to normalization in the following ways:
· The United States acknowledged the People's Republic of China's government as China's sole legitimate government and implicitly accepted the PRC as China's representative in international governmental organizations. In other words, Washington avoided a "two-Chinas" or dual-representation strategy. (The US attempted, but failed, to keep the ROC's UN membership under the dual representation framework in 1971.)
· The US broke off diplomatic relations with the ROC and reestablished them with the PRC. It promised to maintain unofficial ties with Taiwan.
These are the cornerstones of the United States' "one-China" policy. Based on changing conditions, Washington has redefined how to operationalize the conduct of US-Taiwan ties in a practical sense. However, the focus on the essence of these two parts has been maintained. This may have been Taiwan's most challenging time. If the US had implemented the communiqué to the letter, the military balance in the Taiwan Strait might have altered swiftly in Beijing's favor. However, Washington did not do so, and Beijing thinks that Washington has broken its promises. Officials from the People's Republic of China suggested that Taiwan would only be prepared to engage if Washington stopped selling armaments to Taiwan. Washington countered (and continues to contend) that only a militarily secure Taiwan would be willing to engage in political talks with Beijing. It was up to Beijing to persuade Taiwan that its unification plan was in line with the island's government and people's interests. Meanwhile, pro-Taiwan Americans said that the restrictions to which Washington agreed constituted a retreat from the TRA's...