In the context of an international high tension, many fear that the two countries will embark on a path that could lead to a diplomatic, political or even military crisis as in the past.
Could the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan have started the fourth major crisis in the Taiwan Strait?
Pelosi’s trip to the island, which China considers part of its territory, has raised tensions between Washington and Beijing to levels not seen in decades.
Pelosi’s struggle to demonstrate “the United States’ unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy” has been met with Chinese military maneuvers in the sea surrounding the island, including the prediction of Taiwan navigating its own territorial waters.
In the context of an international high tension, many fear that the two countries will embark on a path that could lead to a diplomatic, political or even military crisis as in the past.
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So what were the other three major crises facing the United States and China over Taiwan?
First Taiwan Strait Crisis (1954-1955)
The first crisis occurred shortly after the Korean War (1950-1953), when the United States felt that the Taiwan Strait, which separated mainland China from the island—then called the “Formosa Strait”—should remain neutral.
Chiang Kai-shek had fled from the mainland to Taiwan in 1949 after his group of Kuomintang nationalists lost the Chinese Civil War (1927-1937 and 1946-1949) to the Communists led by Mao Zedong.
In August 1954, determined to recapture the mainland, the Kuomintang deployed its troops on the islands of Quemoy and Matsu, very close to the mainland coast.
Mainland China’s (Communist People’s Republic of China) response was to bomb them heavily. The conflict spread to other archipelagos controlled by nationalist China (Republic of China in Taiwan), killing two US citizens.
Fearing that the communists would eventually take Taiwan and consolidate their influence in Asia, Washington signed the Mutual Defense Treaty between the island and the United States and the Republic of China in December 1954.
Hostilities only ended when the United States publicly announced its willingness to use nuclear weapons against the People’s Republic of China to defend Taiwan. The Soviet Union supported Beijing, but showed no signs of willingness to restore the nuclear balance in the face of threats.
The parties finished negotiating, but the conflict remained secret. Both Communist China and Taiwan used the next three years to strengthen their weapons. And with the nuclear threat, Beijing launched its own nuclear program in 1955.
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Second Crisis (1958)
Mao Zedong resumed the bombing of Quemoy and Matsu in 1958 with the aim of expelling nationalist troops and regaining control of the islands.
This reignited the conflict and then US president Dwight Eisenhower felt that if the communists took this small archipelago they could invade Taiwan. Eisenhower then decided to support and strengthen Taiwanese troops.
The United States responded to the request for assistance sent by the Republic of China according to the mutual defense agreement signed in 1954. The US Navy’s Japan-based Seventh Fleet was reinforced and its ships helped protect the Nationalist government’s supply to China. Islands.
Several US air force squadrons are also stationed in Taiwan.
The nuclear threat returned to the conflict and the People’s Republic of China stopped the bombing.
In the end, the two sides came to a very interesting agreement. Communists and nationalists would bomb each other on alternate days – this agreement prevented the conflict from escalating. Most of the time, they just published propaganda leaflets.
This situation continued until 1979, when the United States recognized the People’s Republic of China and established diplomatic relations with the Beijing government.
That same year, the US Congress also passed the Taiwan Relations Act, which is still in effect today. Under this law, Washington undertakes to provide the island government with the tools necessary to defend itself in the event of an attack.
For years, the Taiwan Relations Act allowed Beijing to develop “strategic uncertainty” to deter it from annexing the region and prevent Taiwan from unilaterally declaring its independence.
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Third crisis (1995-1996)
The last major crisis occurred in 1995, when Lee Teng-hui, then Taiwanese president, visited Cornell University in New York (United States), where he studied.
China saw the visit as a betrayal of the US commitment to respect the “one China” concept. The concept suggests that countries can only establish diplomatic relations with Beijing and not Taiwan’s “rebel province” (as mainland China thinks) – the same argument now used on Nancy Pelosi’s visit.
The Asian giant responded with months of military exercises at the time, launching missile batteries into Taiwanese waters and even rehearsing an amphibious invasion of the island.
The United States responded with the largest deployment of military forces in Asia since the Vietnam War. American warships even passed through the Taiwan Strait.
The following year, days before the 1996 Taiwanese presidential election, Beijing tried to scare Taiwanese voters into refraining from voting for Lee Teng-hui by firing another round of missiles.
But the strategy didn’t work. Lee won with 54% of the vote – but the two powers were too close to a military confrontation.
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source: Noticias
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