The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA; Pub.L. 96-8, 93 Stat. 14, enacted April 10, 1979; H.R. 2479) is an act of the United States Congress passed in 1979 after the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the breaking of relations between the United States and the Republic of China (ROC) on the island of Taiwan by President Jimmy Carter. It more clearly defines the American position on Taiwan and its cross-strait relationship with Beijing. Congress rejected the State Department's proposed draft and replaced it with language that has remained in effect since 1979.

The act authorizes de facto diplomatic relations with the "governing authorities on Taiwan" (which is currently the Republic of China government) by giving special powers to the American Institute in Taiwan to the level that it is the de facto embassy, and states that any international obligations previously made between the ROC and U.S. before 1979 are still valid unless otherwise terminated. One agreement that was unilaterally terminated by President Jimmy Carter upon the establishment of relations was the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty; that termination was the subject of the Supreme Court case Goldwater v. Carter.

Taiwan (ⁱ/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ TY-WAHN; Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; pinyin: Táiwān; see below), officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a state in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China now governs the island of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa), which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other minor islands. Neighboring states include the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east and northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taipei is the capital city and economic and cultural centre of the country, and New Taipei is the most populous city.

The earliest evidence of inhabitation of Taiwan dates back to the late Paleolithic era. The island of Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before being colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch and the Spanish Empire. The first Han Chinese polity on Taiwan began when Koxinga's troops defeated Dutch forces and established the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was subsequently ruled by the Qing Dynasty after the kingdom's defeat in the Battle of Penghu in 1683, a period that lasted for over 200 years. Following Japan's victory over the Qing Dynasty in the first Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.

Peter D. Brookes (born 28 September 1943) is an English cartoonist who has produced work for numerous publications, including Radio Times, New Society, New Statesman, The Spectator and most notably The Times, for which he is the leader-page cartoonist. He has won the title of Cartoonist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2012, 2011, 2010, 2007, and 2002.

Peter Brookes was born in Liverpool, on 28 September 1943, the son of an RAF Squadron Leader. After school, he initially joined the RAF to train as a pilot but left to go to art college in Manchester, then the Central School of Art and Design (now named the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London).

In the mid-1970s he replaced Chris Achilleos as regular jacket illustrator for Doctor Who novelisations from Target Books but his cartoon-style artwork proved less popular than Achilleos's more naturalistic style and he completed only four covers. In the 1970s, he was also a cartoonist for the Radio Times, taking over the main back-page cartoon from Marc Boxer in 1979. He had a short stint as a political cartoonist for the New Statesman, before returning to academia and lecturing at the Central School of Art and the Royal College of Art. For a time he worked as cover artist for the Spectator but, in 1992, he moved to the Times, as its leader-page cartoonist, at the invitation of its newly-appointed editor, Peter Stothard.

Joseph Wu Chao-hsieh (traditional Chinese: 吳釗燮; simplified Chinese: 呉钊燮; pinyin: Wú Zhāoxiè; Wade–Giles: Wú Chāo-hsièh; born 1954) was formerly the chief representative of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the United States as the head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C.. He was appointed to that position in mid-April 2007 by President Chen Shui-bian to succeed his predecessor, David Lee.

Prior to entering politics, he was an academic political scientist, finishing his PhD in political science in 1989 at Ohio State University. He wrote papers critical of the PRC while in the United States. He served as a teacher and research assistant in the political science department of Ohio State University in the United States, and as deputy director of the Institute of International Relations of National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

Formerly the Deputy Secretary General of the Presidential Office for President Chen Shui-bian, Wu was appointed the chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council of the Republic of China (Taiwan), the body charged with coordinating relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), by Chen in May 2004.

Melquíades Rafael Martínez Ruiz, usually known as Mel Martinez (born October 23, 1946), is a former United States Senator from Florida and served as Chairman of the Republican Party from November 2006 until October 19, 2007, the first Latino to serve as chairman of a major party. Previously, Martínez served as the 12th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George W. Bush. Martínez is a Cuban-American and Roman Catholic. He announced he was resigning as Chairman of the Republican National Committee on October 19, 2007. He is an honorary initiate of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity through the Eta Rho Chapter at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Martínez resigned his cabinet post on December 12, 2003, to run for the open U.S. Senate seat in Florida being vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Bob Graham. Martínez secured the Republican nomination and narrowly defeated the Democratic nominee, Betty Castor. His election made him the first Cuban-American to serve in the U.S. Senate. Furthermore, he and Ken Salazar (who is Mexican-American) were the first Hispanic U.S. Senators since 1977. They were joined by a third, Bob Menéndez (who is also Cuban-American) in January 2006, until Salazar resigned from the Senate on January 20, 2009, to become Secretary of the Interior. On December 2, 2008, Martinez announced he would not be running for re-election to the Senate in 2010.