“Daniel Russel, a predecessor of Stilwell until early in the Trump administration, said the ‘Six Assurances’ made to Taipei by the administration of former President Ronald Reagan had been a ‘loosely-kept secret’ at best.
“He said the decision to publish them looked like a compromise response to pressure from administration hawks to abandon ‘strategic ambiguity’ — a long-standing policy of withholding a clear-cut U.S. commitment to defend Taiwan while still showing sufficient support to deter any Chinese military adventurism…”