Date of Award

1988

Document Type

Research Paper

First Advisor

Joyce Kaufman

Abstract

The recognition of the People’s Republic of China reflects a change of perspectives by the United States in its foreign policy goals from a position clarified in the Mutual Defense Treaty. This treaty between the United States and the People’s Republic of China signed in 1954 had recognized Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government on Taiwan as the sovereign government of China. The purpose of this paper is not to question the morality of the United States’ actions in 1954 in its Chinese foreign policy decisions. The decision to defend the security of Taiwan and the Pescadores against external attack must be examined in the context of the time and in relation to the global environment. The theme of this work is that Beijing was striving to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and that this meant not the capture of a few small coastal islands, but rather the prevention of any change in the status of Taiwan that might put the island forever beyond Beijing’s reach except at the price of a world war.

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