Derecognition: How Americans in Taiwan surmounted multiple crises and helped shape the Taiwan Relations Act when the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with a loyal ally

by Robert P Parker, Don Shapiro

198 pages, Paperback

Published April 9, 2025

Reviews

[David Frazier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will be fascinating to Taiwan researchers, though probably not of much interest to general readers. The author, Parker, became president of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei just as US president Jimmy Carter broke official diplomatic ties with Taiwan from Jan 1, 1979. As head of Taiwan's international business community, Parker reacted to the "Crisis of '79" by immediately lobbying the US Congress to preserve the best possible "unofficial" releations with Taiwan (eg. a de facto embassy, continued arms sales, continued legal and treaty agreements) as well working with Taiwan's government to save local institutions to be abandoned by Taiwan's military but important to remaining civilian expats: the Taipei American School, the US military radio station (converted to ICRT, which is still one of Taiwan's top radio stations today), the American Club, and a youth sports league. Parker takes issue with the Carter administration as "hostile" so instead he turns to Taiwan's supporters in Congress, including future president Joe Biden. There are a few juicy anecdotes in here, though much of it reads like a legal brief. With the main text at just around 100 pages, it's a pretty short book.