[Long Jon No Silver]

That’s why it seems so contradictory. On the one hand the U.S doesn’t recognise mainland China sovereignty over Taiwan but still sees Taiwan as a part of China. I understand why the U.S came up with this bizarre scensrio in 72 as a means of trying to maybe de communise China ( and of course make some money). I could be wrong, but Taiwan is probably the only territory that is seen as part of another but is considered a sovereign entity.

[ifinnegan]

Yes it’s bizarre.

Nixon and Kissinger got all caught up in China and were willing to “trade” Taiwan for South Vietnam.

This fever took over the entire foreign policy establishment.

They failed to save South Vietnam yet still abandoned Taiwan. But Chiang and his son didn’t go along with it. Then Lee Teng-hui moved Taiwan to a full democracy and the policy became an anachronism. It’s like a superstition.

[BroJoeK]

"On the one hand the U.S doesn’t recognise mainland China sovereignty over Taiwan but still sees Taiwan as a part of China."

We forget today that years ago Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) party claimed (claims?) sovereignty over mainland China.
"Tricky Dick" Nixon figured out that if we say we agree China is one country, then we could seemingly recognize both claims, and we'd all get along fine, right?

But the US has been committed to Taiwan's defense since the time of President Truman and the Korean War.
All that "strategic ambiguity" means is that we don't say in advance exactly what forms our defense of Taiwan will take.

Publicly it's said that Pentagon war games show we can't win a fight over Taiwan.
My guess is, if that were really true, then it wouldn't be made public.