Formosa Resolution of 1955
In the months succeeding the declaration of neutrality, the PRC seized all U.S. consular property in Beijing, signed the 1950 Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance with the Soviet Union, and began growing its forces at Chekiang and Fukien, opposite Formosa.
These developments, along with the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, prompted President Eisenhower to order the American navy to position itself in the Taiwan Strait to prevent a possible attack on Formosa by the PRC.
[6] On January 6, 1955, President Eisenhower submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratify the Mutual Defense Treaty between the U.S. and the ROC, which outlined an armed attack in the West Pacific area directed against Formosa and the Pescadores territories.
The Resolution empowered President Eisenhower to fully defend Formosa by granting him the authority to employ U.S. armed forces in the Taiwan Strait.
Instead, the Resolution broadened the scope of the Mutual Defense Treaty by extending U.S. commitments to defend from PRC incursions of the offshore islands, in addition to Taiwan.
As the crisis continued into early spring, U.S. officials warned publicly of the potential use of nuclear weapons when in March 1955, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles called for stronger U.S. intervention.
On September 12, 1955, the Joint Chiefs of Staff consulted President Eisenhower, suggesting nuclear weapons should be used against the PRC if it launched a full-scale invasion of Taiwan.
Making certain that Beijing was aware of this, the Eisenhower administration reached a temporary truce with the PRC until the conflict was revived when Taiwan began military reinforcement of the two islands.
[12] Determined to take advantage of the split in relations between the PRC and the Soviet Union and shift the balance of power towards the West, President Richard Nixon pursued a policy of rapproachment with China.
This began with his 1972 visit to China and culminated in 1979 with the signing of the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations by President Carter and Chinese Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping.
These missile tests were meant to sway Taiwanese voters to vote against the pro-independence candidates such as incumbent Kuomintang president Lee Teng-hui and the Democratic Progressive Party's Peng Ming-min.
President Trump attempted to alleviate these doubts during a call on February 9, 2017, with General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping, in which he restated he would honor the One China policy.
