1996 Crisis on the Taiwan Strait

Feb 14, 2012
Paul Iddon

Taiwan Strait - globalsecurity.org

The tense stand off between the U.S. and the PRC in March 1996 saw the former put on the largest display of power projection in Asia since the Vietnam War.

In March 1996 the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) threatened Taiwan by launching military exercises in a bid to - through fear of a war - influence the results of its Presidential election.

The military exercises included mock invasion exercises of Taiwan and the testing of missiles in the waters around the island.

Visa Mishap

In 1995 Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui went to Cornell University where he once attended as a student to give a speech on “Taiwan's Democratization Experience.”

The granting of a visa to him to do so by the Clinton Administration was read by the government in Beijing as an official recognition of Taiwan. Furthermore the PRC government disapproved of these visits to the US given Lee's "pro-Taiwan independence sentiments".

The year before Lee had a stop over in Honolulu following a trip to South Africa to refuel but had to spend his night on his plane since the U,S. government refused him a visa. This incident led to the largely Republican-dominated Congress to vote overwhelming in favour of granting him a visa, ignoring the experts with regards to China (President Bill Clinton himself didn't summon his advisers when he finally granted Teng-hui a visa).

In the run up to the 1996 elections in Taiwan, the PRC begun aggressive military posturing near Taiwan, in an attempt to influence the elections and send a cold message, that a vote for Lee Teng-hui would mean war.

Clinton called in his top military generals and commanders to decide what to do, deciding to send U.S. naval units into the middle of the would-be combat zone to keep the international waterway open.

Clinton was also facing his own presidential campaign in 1996, and the fiasco in Somalia three years before made his administration hesitant about risking American lives. Clinton was also extremely hesitant about risking war with China every time the Taiwanese president attended a class reunion.

Gunboat Diplomacy

The plan was to send an aircraft carrier - the USS Nimitz - through the Taiwan Strait during the exercises as a means of telling China that the United States was willing to put its neck on the line in order to keep the Strait open.

The U.S. strategy of exerting military force over the security of an international waterway was reminiscent of its military operations in the Persian Gulf in the late 1980's. During the 'Tanker War' phase of the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq, the United States dispatched a sizable naval force to protect tankers going in and out of the narrow Strait of Hormuz. Following Iranian mining of this international waterway, the United States engaged mobile Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces on the gulf and engaged its naval frigates, destroying one and fatally crippling another one.

Major fears with the Taiwan Strait stand-off were that if a U.S. ship was struck by a stray artillery round or missile they may have subsequently ended up engaging PRC army and naval forces, which would instigate a very dangerous shooting war.

Whilst Chinese missiles that were fired near the Taiwanese coast did lead to a fall in the stock market and a considerable loss of capital and real estate prices, it actually boosted Lee's presidential campaign, as the operations angered the Taiwanese public rather than make it fearful.

Although there is no evidence to suggest the United States had a large force in the direct vicinity, the forces it mustered together to face down the PRC if it initiated an attack, blockade or invasion was enough for China to reconsider its hostile posturing and sabre rattling.