ABSTRACT
The passage of the Taiwan Relations Act in April 1979 temporarily eased congressional-executive friction over China policy. Several members of Congress, led by Senator Barry Goldwater, took particular issue with President Carter's legal claim to the right to terminate the mutual security treaty with Taiwan without the approval of Congress. Congress faced an entirely different set of questions regarding economic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) as a result of Vice President Mondale's trip to the PRC in August 1979. Even critics who argued that the Carter administration was now tilting toward China generally agreed that US-PRC economic cooperation was less likely to antagonize the USSR and compromise other US long-term interests than US-PRC security ties were. The American willingness to sell military equipment to the PRC came as a surprise to many congressional members and revived bad feelings over the Carter administration's lack of consultations over China policy.
