In the Shanghai Communiqué of February 28, 1972, China and the United States did not write one shared position on Taiwan. Following a format proposed by Zhou Enlai, each side stated its own views in separate paragraphs. China said that the government of the People’s Republic was the sole legal government of China and that Taiwan was a province of China.
The United States wrote that it “acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position.” Some American sources date the communiqué February 27.