Sino-US ties need treaties

China and the United States are in desperate need of a binding treaty framework to put the world's most complicated and unruly bilateral relations on a steady and manageable development track.

As the world's largest developing and developed nations, the two have managed to deal with each other under the three joint communiqus, i.e. the Shanghai Communiqu, the Communiqu on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations and the August 17 Communiqu that were issued respectively on Feb 28 of 1972, Jan 1 of 1979 and Aug 17, 1982.

The documents signed between the two governments, the communiqus have never been submitted to both countries' legislatures for approval as binding treaties because of reasons from the US side. In sharp contrast, the US Congress rushed to pass the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979 as the Carter administration decided to shift its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the Chinese mainland.