Just as the Cold War was beginning, China, Taiwan and the United States found themselves tangled in a military situation which threatened to go hot.
"Hidden History" is a diary series that explores forgotten and little-known areas of history.
Chinese propaganda poster, “We must liberate Taiwan!” photo from WikiCommons
When the Second World War ended in 1945, China was still divided. For years a civil war had raged between the Nationalist Government forces of Chiang kai-shek and the Communist insurgency led by Mao Tse-tung. During the war the two sides had (mostly) put aside their differences to focus on the Japanese invaders, but as soon as the Japanese surrendered the Chinese civil war ignited again. In 1949 the Communists won control of the entire mainland, and Chiang’s Nationalists were forced to flee to the island of Formosa (now known as Taiwan).
The result was a stalemate. The Nationalists had a strong naval force, consisting partially of Japanese ships that had been surrendered at the end of the Second World War. Mao’s Communists, on the other hand, had a huge and powerful land army, but no naval forces which would allow them to successfully invade Taiwan. And there the matter rested, with the Communists controlling the mainland and the Nationalists controlling Taiwan (about a hundred miles across the water) along with a series of smaller islands just a few miles off the Chinese coast. Neither was able to effectively attack the other.
Both sides, however, continued to claim to be the only legitimate government of all China (and still do today), and now each side prepared for future military action: the Communists to expel Chiang from the last remnant of China, and the Nationalists for a potential invasion to try to seize the mainland back. The civil war never formally ended.
The position of the United States (which had emerged from the World War as the only intact global military power) was ambivalent. The US had never liked Chiang’s corrupt dictatorship and their alliance had only been a marriage of convenience against the Japanese, and President Truman sent signals that the US was neutral on what it considered to be an internal Chinese matter, and would not interfere if Mao took Taiwan and removed Chiang from power.
Then, in 1950, Soviet-backed North Korea invaded the South, and the Cold War began in earnest. Now, the US adopted a policy of “containment”, a global attempt to hold “world communism” in place. That meant that Taiwan (and Chiang) once again became an ally of convenience, and the US now pledged its support for Taiwan’s defense against potential Chinese invasion.
Attention fell on the islands in the Taiwan Straits that were being held by the Nationalists, including the small Dachen Islands and the larger islands of Quemoy and Matsu. Mao saw these as a stepping stone to the invasion of Taiwan itself, while Chiang saw them as his first line of defense as well as a method of harassing Chinese ports on the mainland.
In September 1954, a year after the Korean War had ended, it seemed as though both sides were maneuvering towards a conflict. Taiwan moved a large number of troops to the Quemoy and Matsu, and China began an artillery bombardment of the islands, hoping to drive the Nationalists into retreat. The United States responded by moving its own naval forces into the Taiwan Straits, and in turn China expanded the conflict by launching air strikes against the Dachen Islands. When the US threatened to use nuclear weapons and moved a number of B-29 squadrons into position, the Soviets countered with a pledge that they would defend their ally in China (at this time China did not have nuclear weapons of its own). In the end cooler heads prevailed. The Nationalists remained in Quemoy and Matsu, but withdrew from Dachen, allowing both sides to claim a victory. The “First Taiwan Straits Crisis” ended, but the tensions remained.
In August 1958, Mao made another move, by attempting to land troops on one of the small islands near Quemoy. They were driven off by Taiwanese naval forces, and this was followed by an intense Communist artillery barrage and a series of strikes against supply ships in the Straits. Once again, with the Chinese threatening an invasion, the US began preparations for nuclear strikes against the mainland, and moved American naval forces into the area. The Communists, unwilling to risk nuclear war with the United States, ceased their naval attacks on Taiwanese shipping, but intensified their artillery fire and began a number of air raids on various targets. The US replied by supplying the Taiwanese air force with new American Sidewinder air to air missiles, which took a heavy toll on the Chinese fighter-bombers.
By December 1958, with neither side able to make any more effective moves, the situation settled into an odd stalemate. The Chinese and the Taiwanese each began bombarding the other on alternate days, using dummy artillery shells that had been packed with propaganda leaflets instead of explosives. This surreal exchange would go on for the next twenty years until the US and China normalized their diplomatic relations in 1979.
The “Second Taiwan Straits Crisis” had a number of unexpected consequences. During the air battles over the Straits, an American-made Sidewinder from a Taiwanese F-86 Sabre hit a Chinese MiG-15 but failed to explode, and the Soviets were able to reverse-engineer the dud into their own K-13 air to air missile.
More importantly, China was disturbed by what it saw as a lack of support from the Soviet Union during the conflict. This led Mao to begin a program to develop his own independent nuclear capability, and would also eventually lead to a diplomatic and military split between China and the USSR and to Beijing’s diplomatic efforts to normalize ties with the United States.
Today, both Taipei and Beijing continue their claims to be the sole legitimate government of all of China, and though Taiwan seems to be content with its current state of de facto independence, Beijing continues to assert its right to assume control of what it views as its legitimate territory (the “One-China Policy”). The US tries its best to placate both sides: it supplies military aid to Taiwan, but has no formal mutual-defense treaty (a policy which it calls “strategic ambiguity”).
The Taiwan Straits continues to be a political and military hot spot.
NOTE: As some of you already know, all of my diaries here are draft chapters for a number of books I am working on. So I welcome any corrections you may have, whether it's typos or places that are unclear or factual errors. I think of y'all as my pre-publication editors and proofreaders. ;)
