Foreign Relations of the United States and China - Essay Example

?Foreign Relations of the US and China 1958-1960 The foreign relations between the United s and China are often considered to be complex as wellas multi-dimensional. Before 1970s, the United States did not have any diplomatic relationship with the communist China and only recognized Taiwan as Republic of China. This article takes a deeper look at the relationship scenario during the years 1958-960 and analyzes some prominent questions such as the American foreign policy towards China, the major events that took place during this period, the major players involved as well as any major policy changes that took place. During the period of 1958-1960, there were a number of issues of contention between these two nations. Some of critical issues included the Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Tibetan rebellion, the rift between China and Soviet Union as well as the fluctuations between the relationship between the United States and the Chinese nationalists. Therefore, this period saw some incidents of significant between the relationships of the two countries.  Taiwan Strait Crisis During the period 1958-1960, the most important and critical event that took place was the Taiwan Strait Crisis. In this crisis, the government of the mainland attempted to attack the islands of Quemoy which were held by the nationalists, where as the United States supported the government that they recognized, which is the Chinese Nationalists of Taiwan. This increased the tension between both these countries and efforts were carried out to end this crisis (Bush, 2006). The context and the details of the crisis are mentioned below. During 1958, the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek began to express his unrest at the restrictions of the United States that blocked his desired intention to return to the mainland. Chiang wanted to exploit the situation of instability in Taiwan. This had created a level of caution among the United States officials. In July 1958, there was a campaign launched to liberate Beijing and along with that, two nationalist planes were shot down. Chiang Kai-shek had already warned of an attack on Taiwan. This led to anxiety among the US policymakers that the control of airspace over the Taiwan Strait by the communist would result in the cutoff of supplies to the islands held by the Nationalists. As speculated, the forces of People's Republic of China began to attack Quemoy in 1958 with artillery (Carpenter, 2006). The President of the United States, Eisenhower got involved in this matter and agreed to help the ROC as per the terms of the U.S-ROC treaty. They reinforced the naval units to protect the lines of supplies leading to Quemoy. The Sidewinder air to air missiles were set up in defense.  The attacks continued and caused a causality of over 2500 soldiers in ROC (Tucker, 2005). The attacks resulted in many US allies getting concerned over the issue. Furthermore, the Premier of the Soviet Union Khrushchev wrote a public letter to the President Eisenhower taking a very aggressive stand of support of the Chinese of Taiwan, saying that any action on PRC would be a direct attack on China. Therefore, the crisis took a three dimensional turn. There was a series of communication between the two leaders of the countries. According to the US intelligence, it was found out that the Soviet Union was not prepared for any attacks and hence, the United States rejected the letter or Khrushchev publicly. There was immense international pressure building up to end the crisis and the President as well as the officials made efforts to convince Chiang Kai-Shek. The government of PRC was not at all ready to involve a third party such as the United Nations. Only in October 1958, the PRC agreed for a de facto cease fire, where the PRC Defense Minister P'eng Te-huai stated that they are ready to declare the cease fire and during this period, there should not be any convoy escorts for the supply. Even though Kai-Shek opposed it, the United States relented to it. Thus, the attack was withdrawn on the days of the Ceasefire. Towards the end of October, PRC stated that there would be no shelling on even-numbered days provided there are no escort convoys (Chen, 1999). Even though this was a very interesting strategy, it was agreed upon by the United States. A memorandum was signed regarding this in November to withdraw a high number of troops.   One of the many consequences of this crisis was the tricky situation that the United States faced when it came to using nuclear power (Freeman, 1996). They were caught in a tough choice of either letting the Nationalist get defeated or using their nuclear weapons. It has been said that during this phase, the United States had come really close to using the nuclear weapons. This crisis resulted in many major figures getting involved. President Eisenhower, Chiang Kai-Shek and the Russian Premier Khrushchev were some of the key figures. Apart from that, the US Secretary Dulles and PRC Defense Minister P'eng Te-huai also had a critical role. Even though the matter was between the two parts of China, the United States had got involved in the issue because of its allegiance with the Nationalists.   Relationship between the United States and Nationalists  Another noteworthy incident that took place during this period was the change in the relationship between the Nationalists and the United States. Even though the United States worked as an ally during the crisis, there were issues of disagreement. For example, in October, Chiang Kai-shek requested a reinforcement of 15, 000 troops in the area, but this offer was clearly rejected by the US (Jonathan, 2005). Similarly, another demand for large scale para troopers was also turned down. It was evident that the United States did not want to get involved in any large scale attack related operations in the region of China. The reason to adopt this stand could be because they would be inevitably be pressed to use the nuclear weapon on numerous occasions, which they did not want to happen. This strain was further evident during 1960, when the US President visited China and Chiang Kai-shek presented a plan of attack using guerrilla warfare, without the use of warfare. Even though the attack was planned to be solely by the Chinese, they would require intelligence and telecommunication support from the United States. The President said that he needed to take a deeper look, and later he rejected this proposal and suggested that engaging in talks were a better option (Brown and Gangly, 1997). Therefore, there was a clear conflict because the Chiang Kai-shek wanted to attack the mainland territory, but the United States wanted prosperity of Taiwan so that the US assistance to this region would begin to reduce. Furthermore, they wanted to establish a capitalist culture in Taiwan and bring around an economic reformation rather than participating in warfare.   Overview of Relationship between the Soviet Union and US because of Taiwan Strait Crisis The interference of Russia during the Taiwan Strait crisis also redefined the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviet premier had earlier warned of aggression because of the stand that the United States had taken towards communist China. However, President Eisenhower replied saying that communist China had already disobeyed the orders of the United Nations and hence, it would be impossible to end the crisis from their end (Richardson, 1994). However, the President of Soviet Union said that Taiwan was a part of China and hence, it was an internal crisis that did not require external intervention. The new secretary of state Herter was not happy with the developments and he drafted a letter to Premier Khrushchev about the fact that Taiwan crisis was an international one and hence, should be solved peacefully. To this letter, Khrushchev replies saying that it is important to settle international disputes, but he again openly supported the stand of China on Taiwan. The United States took the stand that since the Soviets had declared themselves as the leader of the communist bloc, and then they should also be responsible for the action of the other countries such as China and hence, should attempt to restrain them from attacking the Nationalists.  However, the Soviet stand was very clear as they continued to support China’s strategy of the attacks and even threatened that if there is a need, they would also get involved in a militarily manner (Bush & Hanlon, 2007). Therefore, the relationship between the two nations deteriorated further because of the crisis of Taiwan Strait. The major influential people who were involved in this crisis included the Presidents of both the nations and also the US Secretary of State Herter.  The Issue of Tibet Another issue that came to the spotlight during the period of 1958-1960 was the issue of Tibet. In 1959, after the flight of Dalai Lama, the dissidents suffered defeats and they were hoping that the US would intervene and help in securing a safe passage to India. As the Tibetan resistance was going down greatly, the Secretary of State Dulles initiated the process of support for the request of the supplies from the Dalai Lama with the support from the President (Smith, 1996). However, there was an increased anxiety on whether providing this support would result great animosity between the United States and China and also cause greater distress to the Tibetans. Here again, the United States was placed in a very difficult situation because there was confusion on whether or not recognize the efforts of independence of Tibet. Eventually, it was decided that even if the US supported the demand, only a very few number of countries would support it, for they may not want to spoil their diplomatic relationships with the PRC. However, it was also noticed that United States had the moral responsibility to support the request made by the Dalai Lama in an effort to keep up the principles of self-determination. Therefore, the issue of Tibet happened at a time when the situation in China was already tensed because of the Taiwan Strait crisis and once again, it put the United States in a challenging situation. Conclusion This study has illustrated the various political developments that took place between the United Nations and China during the period of 1958-1960. The main development was the crisis of Taiwan Strait where the United States was directly involved. This resulted in new dimensions of relationship between the United States and the Nationalists as well as with the Soviet Union. To add to this challenging situation, the United States was also requested help by the Dalai Lama with regard to Tibet. Hence, the period of 2 years witnessed a lot of activities.  References Primary Source U.S. Department of State. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958-1960, Vol.19: China .Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1996. Online. Others Brown, Michael and Ganguly, Sumi. Government policies and ethnic relations in Asia and the Pacific. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997. Print Bush, Richard. Untying the Knot: Making Peace in the Taiwan Strait. Washington D.C: Brookings Institution Press, 2006. Print Bush, Richard and O'Hanlon, Michael. A War Like No Other: The Truth About China's Challenge to America. New York:Wiley, 2007. Print Carpenter, Ted Galen. America's Coming War with China: A Collision Course over Taiwan. New York:Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print Chen, Qimao. The Taiwan Strait crisis: Causes, scenarios, and solutions. Routledge, New York, 1999. Print Freeman Chas. Managing U.S.-Relations with China.New York: Asia PacificResearch Center, Columbia University, 1996. Print Jonathan, Fenby. Chiang Kai Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost. New York:Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005. Print Richardson, James. Crisis diplomacy: The great powers since the mid-nineteenth century, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1994. Print Tucker, Nancy Bernkopf. Dangerous Strait: the U.S.-Taiwan-China Crisis. Columbia:Columbia University Press, 2005. Print Read More