U.S. House Speaker Pelosi visited Taiwan for 19 hours from Aug. 2-3. Immediately following her departure, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ordered the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to conduct aggressive military operations around Taiwan.

This article highlights the historical background of the CCP’s aggression toward Taiwan, using examples of historical visits from U.S. senior politicians, the implications of these visits for Taiwan, and Taiwan’s allies and friends.

President Eisenhower’s visit to Taiwan – June 18-19, 1960

President Dwight D. Eisenhower served two terms from 1953-1961, and he was directly involved with the First Taiwan Strait Crisis (Sept. 3, 1954-May 1, 1955) and the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis (Aug. 23-Dec. 2, 1958).

Additionally, after the Korean War, Eisenhower initiated the bilateral Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the Republic of China (ROC) / Taiwan which was signed on Dec. 2, 1954, in which both sides pledged to defend each other in case of an attack.

In September 1959, when Eisenhower met with First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev for two days during his twelve-day visit to the U.S., Eisenhower was knowledgeable about the conflict between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) / Taiwan.

During their conversation, Khrushchev argued that the PRC should be allowed to take the ROC because the ROC’s status was an internal matter, not an international issue, and that the U.S. should not continue arming the ROC. This argument disturbed Eisenhower. In September, 1959, following the Eisenhower-Khrushchev meeting and in response to their discussions, Eisenhower wrote a short note explaining to Khrushchev why he disagreed with allowing the PRC to take over the ROC:

“The world in which we live is, in a sense, an indivisible one. I must say that I find a disturbing contrast between what you said to me on China toward the close of our talks and what you said to me with regard to the question of Germany, which is also a great — and divided — country.

You spoke of the need for a peaceful solution of the German question, but you said the People’s Republic could legitimately use force in China. We, of course, disagree with this view. In my view both are international matters.

I have expressed my willingness to discuss the German question seriously with you and the other interested parties in the hope of reaching a peaceful conclusion in the interest of our two countries and mankind as a whole. I think that the question of China can, in time, be resolved the same way.”

Eisenhower’s hope for a resolution to the PRC-ROC conflict seems to be coming to a culminating point now, especially after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit in August, 2022.

Eisenhower visits Taiwan

President Eisenhower arrived in Taiwan by boat and stayed in Taiwan from June 19-20, 1960, seven months before he would end his second and final term. During his two-day visit, he met with ROC leader Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), and other Taiwanese leaders, along with their spouses. The two leaders had met only twice before, during the Cairo Conference in 1943 and in Nanjing in 1946.

They had not seen each other for 13 years. This was an important meeting for both men. Taiwan greeted Eisenhower like he had just liberated the island from tyranny. Many reports note that over 500,000 people lined the streets to see him as well as the several hundred thousand that listened to him speak. Eisenhower was the only sitting president to visit Taiwan.

Enter the CCP’s PLA

The CCP and PLA’s response to Eisenhower’s visit was to fire 30,000 artillery shells at Kinmen Island a day before he arrived in Taiwan, and 174,854 rounds hit the island during his stay. From June 20, 1960 onwards, the PLA continued shelling Kinmen Island on odd days until January 1, 1979, when President Carter derecognized the ROC and recognized the PRC.

So, for 19 years, the PLA fired at Kinmen island to remind the inhabitants, Taiwan, and the rest of the world that they could shell a Taiwanese island with impunity. Even when President Nixon and Kissinger focused on opening the U.S. relationship with the PRC in 1971, they made no attempt to force the PRC to stop shelling Kinmen. The PRC took no conciliatory actions toward Taiwan as the U.S. snuggled up to the CCP.

Other crises from 1960-1995

From 1960-1995, the CCP continued its aggressive activities, which include:

• 1974: The PLA took the Paracel Islands, Yagong Island and Crescent Group Reef from Vietnam


• 1979: The PLA invaded Vietnam and withdrew after losing 30,000 soldiers; the PRC retains to this day twenty-three square miles of Vietnamese territory.


• 1988: The PLA took south Johnson Reef, which is located in the southwest of the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, from Vietnam, sinking three ships and killing 74 Vietnamese sailors.


• 1992: The PRC passed the Law on the Territorial Sea claiming most of the South China Sea.


• 1994: The PLA occupied Mischief Reef from the Philippines (Spratly Islands) and continued to build military bases throughout the South China Sea.

This list does not include the CCP-supported Maoist insurgencies and Maoist organizations that attempted to overthrow governments in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Third Taiwan Strait Crisis (1995-1996)

The CCP ordered the PLA to conduct military exercises near Taiwan to intimidate its leaders and the Taiwanese population, to challenge the U.S., and to demonstrate their power for their domestic audience during the Third Taiwan Straits Crisis:

• June, 1995: President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) gave a speech at Cornell University (his alma mater) on "Taiwan's Democratization Experience."
  
  
  
  
  • President William J. Clinton and Secretary of State Warren Christopher tried to prevent President Lee from traveling to the U.S., but Congress countered the pressure and eventually the U.S. allowed him to come as a private citizen.
  
  
  • In July 1995, the PLA fired a total of six missiles near Taiwan to express their displeasure at Lee's trip to the U.S. In response, President Clinton deployed several U.S. Navy ships in July, including the USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3) that transited the Taiwan Strait. In December 1995, a destroyer and a frigate transited the strait followed by the USS Nimitz and four other ships.
  
  
  
  


• 1996: The PLA conducted a second military exercise on March 8, 1996, to convince Taiwanese voters to not re-elect President Lee Teng-hui. The CCP attempted to prevent the re-election of Lee by having the PLA conduct a missile launch ‘exercise,’ firing three nuclear-capable M-9 missiles from Hainan Island within 35 miles of the Taiwanese ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung.

In the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, one missile flew over Taipei and landed 19 miles off the coast. According to a 2019 press report that cited a PLA major general and a senior colonel in Taiwan’s intelligence service, the missiles carried no warheads.

In response to the PLA aggression, President Clinton sent four flattops and their respective warships near Taiwan, including USS Independence (CV-62), USS Nimitz (CVN-68), USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3), and USS Bunker Hill (CG-52). The USS Belleau Wood, USS Nimitz and her battle group transited the Taiwan Strait.

What can the U.S. do?

• First action

With so many representatives and senators visiting Taiwan in the past eight months, Congress should be amenable to sending a message to the CCP that the U.S. government opposes any CCP attempt to violently overthrow the government in Taiwan. Furthermore, according to the Taiwan Relations Act, section 2.c and 2.d, the U.S. government should:

2.c “to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means;

2.d to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area is of grave concern to the United States;"

Paragraph 2.c means that any attempt by the CCP to use non-peaceful means, including “boycotts or embargoes,” allows the U.S. to sever ties with the PRC. According to Paragraph 2.d, the U.S. would assess such actions with “grave concern” and could choose to intervene militarily. The U.S. should grant immediate military aid to Taiwan as it has done to Israel and other allies.

• Second action

In January of 1955, the Senate, House of Representatives and President Eisenhower signed a Joint Resolution called the “Authorization for the President To Employ the Armed Forces of the United States for Protecting the Security of Formosa [ROC], the Pescadores, and Related Positions and Territories of That Area.” The Joint Resolution made references then that mirror the current CCP’s aggressive behavior of today:

“Whereas certain territories in the West Pacific under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China are now under armed attack, and threats and declarations have been and are being made by the Chinese Communists that such armed attack is in aid of and in preparation for armed attack on Formosa [Taiwan] and the Pescadores,

Whereas such armed attack if continued would gravely endanger the peace and security of the West Pacific Area and particularly of Formosa and the Pescadores; and

Whereas the secure possession by friendly governments of the Western Pacific Island chain, of which Formosa is a part, is essential to the vital interests of the United States and all friendly nations in or bordering upon the Pacific Ocean; and

…Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be and he hereby is authorized to employ the Armed Forces of the United States as he deems necessary for the specific purpose of securing and protecting Formosa, and the Pescadores against armed attack...”

Declaring that defending Taiwan is in the vital interest of the U.S. is not a trivial statement. Violation of vital interests triggers armed conflict.

In March of 1955, President Eisenhower used the authority in the Joint Resolution and the MDA to threaten nuclear war against the PRC to “deter an attack on Taiwan and to stop the shelling of Chiang Kai-Shek’s forces on outlying islands.” National security expert and a Nobel Laureate in economics, Thomas Schelling argued that the PRC-Taiwan crises from 1954-1958 was “the only time the United States really might have used nuclear weapons” since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Even though Congress and President Gerald Ford repealed the above 1955 Joint Resolution in October of 1975, the current conditions have changed and are very similar to the conditions that originally existed in 1955 that drove the U.S. to establish the MDT with Taiwan. Congress should submit a similar Joint Resolution to President Biden for his signature so the CCP clearly understands that an attack on Taiwan is an attack on the U.S. Why? Because the current conditions have changed and are more like the conditions that existed in 1955.

The American people should demand that Congress and the president reinforce a message of opposition to a PRC military intervention against Taiwan, to the rest of the world, and prepare the American people for a violent military conflict against the CCP should they choose to subjugate Taiwan.

What can Taiwan’s allies and friends do?

• First supporting action

Taiwan’s allies and friends should prepare to break relations with the CCP in coordination with the U.S. if the CCP orders the PLA to take Taiwan. These allies should prepare in advance for supply chain challenges and be prepared to assist each other under these circumstances, just as many of these same countries are boycotting Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. They should also send weapons needed by Taiwan now, before a conflict starts.

• Second supporting action

Should the U.S. decide to counter PLA military actions against Taiwan, then allies and friends of Taiwan should be willing to join a coalition in support of military operations to evict the PLA from Taiwan.

Taiwan’s allies and friends can also help persuade the U.S. to protect their own vital interests, especially regarding Taiwan and the first island chain that includes many other U.S. allies and friends such as Japan, the Philippines, and the rest of the South China Sea countries.

Final words – President Eisenhower

President Eisenhower gave a radio and television report to the American people 64 years ago regarding the situation in the Taiwan Straits on September 11, 1958, that is relevant today:

"I know something about that war, and I never want to see that history repeated. But, my fellow Americans, it certainly can be repeated if the peace-loving democratic nations again fearfully practice a policy of standing idly by while big aggressors use armed force to conquer the small and weak."