The Taiwan Strait, which separates the island of the same name from communist China, has been a major geopolitical point of tension since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and has already been the scene of three serious military crises.
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Only 130 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, this strait is both an important international shipping channel and the obstacle that separates the small democratic island from its large authoritarian neighbor.
At the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the Communist forces of Mao Tse-tung succeeded in repelling the nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek, who settled in Taiwan.
The first Taiwan Strait Crisis erupted in August 1954 when nationalists from the Republic of China – the official name of Taiwan – deployed thousands of troops to Kinmen and Matsu, two small islands a few miles from the mainland.
Communist China responded with artillery bombardment of the islands and the capture of the Yijiangshan Islands, about 400 kilometers north of Taipei.
The crisis is finally defused. But it nearly threw China and the United States into a direct conflict.
Fighting broke out again in 1958, when Mao’s forces bombed Kinmen and Matsu with the aim of once again dislodging Nationalist troops.
Fearing that the loss of these islands would lead to the collapse of the nationalists and the takeover of Taiwan by Beijing, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered his military to escort and resupply their Taiwanese allies.
The United States even briefly considered using nuclear weapons against China.
Unable to take the islands located near its coasts or subjugate the nationalists by its bombardments, Beijing announces a ceasefire.
A tense status quo then set in, but Mao’s forces continued to shell Kinmen intermittently until 1979.
The third crisis comes 37 years later. Meanwhile, China and Taiwan are changing dramatically.
After Mao’s death in 1976, China remained under the control of the Communist Party, but began a period of reform and opening up to the world.
Taiwan, for its part, is gradually emerging from the authoritarianism of Chiang Kai-shek and evolving towards a progressive democracy. A Taiwanese identity, very different from the Chinese identity, is beginning to develop.
Tensions flared again in 1995 when China began to test-fire missiles in the waters surrounding Taiwan to protest a visit by Taiwanese leader Lee Teng-hui to the United States.
Lee, in favor of Taiwan formally declaring itself an independent state, was therefore Beijing’s pet peeve.
New missile tests are carried out by China a year later, while Taiwan organizes its first presidential election by direct universal suffrage.
But these tests turn against Beijing. The United States dispatches two groups of aircraft carriers to pressure China to back down, and Lee Teng-hui wins a landslide election victory.
The following year, Newt Gingrich became the first speaker of the United States House of Representatives to visit Taiwan, a precedent that Nancy Pelosi renewed in 2022, a quarter of a century later.