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The Taiwan Strait: A history of crises

Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="The guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal sailed through the Taiwan Strait in May. Courtesy of US Navy" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/overseas/05/11/20220511-taiwan.jpg"/><figcaption>The guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal sailed through the Taiwan Strait in May. <em>Courtesy of US Navy</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>TAIPEI - Ever since Communist China and Taiwan broke away from each other at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 the waterway separating them has been a tense geopolitical flashpoint.</p><p>Just 130 kilometers (81 miles) wide at its narrowest point, the Taiwan Strait is a major international shipping channel and all that lies between now democratic, self-ruled Taiwan and its giant authoritarian neighbor.</p><p>Beijing has responded furiously to this week&#x27;s visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, issuing increasingly bellicose threats and announcing a series of military drills in the waters surrounding the island. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/08/03/22/taiwan-defiant-as-china-readies-military-drills-over-pelosi-visit">Taiwan&#x27;s Tsai defiant as China readies military drills over Pelosi visit</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/07/30/22/china-announces-taiwan-strait-live-fire-military-drills">China announces Taiwan Strait drills ahead of possible Pelosi trip</a></li></ul><p>Historians pinpoint three previous moments when tensions within the Taiwan Strait boiled over into an acute crisis.</p><div><strong>First Taiwan Strait Crisis </strong></div><p>At the end of the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong&#x27;s communist forces had successfully pushed out Chiang Kai-shek&#x27;s Nationalists, who relocated to Taiwan.</p><p>Two rivals stood on each side of the strait -- the People&#x27;s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland and the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan.</p><p>The First Taiwan Strait Crisis broke out in August 1954 when the Nationalists placed thousands of troops on Taiwan-ruled Kinmen and Matsu, two small islands just a few miles from the mainland.</p><p>Communist China responded with artillery bombardments of the islands and the successful capture of the Yijiangshan Islands, about 400 kilometers north of Taipei.</p><p>The crisis was eventually defused but nearly brought China and the United States to the brink of direct conflict. </p><div><strong>Second Taiwan Strait Crisis </strong></div><p>Fighting broke out again in 1958 as Mao&#x27;s forces conducted an intense bombardment of Kinmen and Matsu in a bid to once again dislodge Nationalist troops there. </p><p>Concerned that the loss of those islands might lead to the collapse of the Nationalists and Beijing&#x27;s eventual takeover of Taiwan, US President Dwight D Eisenhower ordered his military to escort and resupply their Taiwanese allies.</p><p>At one point, the US even briefly considered deploying nuclear weapons against China.</p><p>Unable to take the offshore islands or bombard the Nationalists into submission, Beijing announced a ceasefire. </p><p>Mao&#x27;s forces would still intermittently shell Kinmen up to 1979 but an otherwise tense stalemate set in.</p><div><strong>Third Taiwan Strait Crisis </strong></div><p>It would be another 37 years before the next crisis.</p><p>In those intervening decades, both China and Taiwan changed considerably. </p><p>Following the death of Mao, China remained Communist Party-controlled but began a period of reform and opening up to the world. </p><p>Taiwan, meanwhile, began shaking off the authoritarian years of Chiang Kai-shek and evolving into a progressive democracy, with many embracing a distinctly Taiwanese -- and not Chinese -- identity.</p><p>Tensions exploded again in 1995 when China began test-firing missiles in the waters around Taiwan to protest a visit by Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to his alma mater university in the United States.</p><p>Beijing particularly loathed Lee because he favored Taiwan declaring itself an independent state. </p><p>Further missile tests were carried out a year later as Taiwan held its first direct presidential election. </p><p>The display backfired. </p><p>The US dispatched two aircraft carrier groups to push China into backing down and Lee won the election by a large margin.</p><p>A year later, Newt Gingrich became the first US House Speaker to visit Taiwan, a precedent Pelosi is now following 25 years later.</p><p>© Agence France-Presse</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2uPQc4z3ElQ?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

The Taiwan Strait is a major international shipping channel and all that lies between now democratic, self-ruled Taiwan and its giant authoritarian neighbor.