ABSTRACT
In March 1996, the People's Republic of China again besieged Taiwan. For the first time since 1949, missiles flew over the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, the imaginary border that aimed at preventing any military confrontation between these two rival regimes, and landed in the sea only tens of miles off Taipei. This display of military capability was the PRC's attempt to reclaim the long-split territory, in response to the first popular presidential election in Taiwan which, China was afraid, might be a step towards the formal declaration of independence. Apparently, the PRC's interpretation of the recent changing political and social situation in Taiwan had rendered it difficult to cross the line, an action that was rare, even in the heyday of the cold war. The US responded to the crisis by sending two carriers to waters near the Taiwan Strait, the largest show of force in the Pacific Rim since the end of the Korean War.
