ABSTRACT
A number of experts in and outside government argued that rapid movement toward the establishment of formal US diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) was needed to maintain and enhance cordial Sino-American relations. The conflicting arguments made by opponents and proponents of normalization were divided into four categories: US strategic interests, American moral principles, US economic concerns, and questions of PRC leadership stability. Opponents of normalization on PRC terms maintained that a US withdrawal from Taiwan would have a detrimental impact on US strategic interests in East Asia. A few US leaders argued that a US break with Taiwan represented a morally unjustifiable "sacrifice" of the security of the people of Taiwan for the sake of improved US-PRC relations. US leaders in the Carter administration and Congress devoted considerable attention to the possible implications of US-PRC normalization for US law, especially laws governing relations with Taiwan and the PRC.
