Resolving the Taiwan Question

Two documents will largely determine U.S. relations with the two Chinas in the near future. It behooves us to examine their meaning and impact with care.

The Mutual Defense Treaty, signed in December 1954 and subsequently ratified by the U.S. Senate, is the most important treaty Nationalist China has ever made with a foreign power. Its purpose was to meet a critical situation arising after the Korean War. Peking had been declared an aggressor by the Security Council of the United Nations and had assumed a threatening posture toward both Taiwan and the U.S. position in the western Pacific. The intent of the treaty was to give stability to a highly fluid and precarious situation until the political balance of power in the area could be restored.

HK

About the Author

H. M. Ku

Two documents will largely determine U.S. relations with the two Chinas in the near future. It behooves us to examine their meaning and impact with care.

The Mutual Defense Treaty, signed in December 1954 and subsequently ratified by the U.S. Senate, is the most important treaty Nationalist China has ever made with a foreign power. Its purpose was to meet a critical situation arising after the Korean War. Peking had been declared an aggressor by the Security Council of the United Nations and had assumed a threatening posture toward both Taiwan and the U.S. position in the western Pacific. The intent of the treaty was to give stability to a highly fluid and precarious situation until the political balance of power in the area could be restored.