Third Taiwan Strait Crisis

The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis unfolded between July 1995 and March 1996, triggered by a visit that Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui made to Cornell University in June 1995. Beijing viewed the US decision to grant Lee a visa — reversing earlier assurances — as a violation of its understanding of the "One China" policy and a signal of growing international space for Taiwan.

In response, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted a series of missile tests and live-fire exercises in waters near Taiwan. The first round, in July 1995, saw Dongfeng missiles fired into a target zone north of the island. Further exercises followed in August and November 1995. The most provocative phase came in March 1996, just days before Taiwan's first direct presidential election, when the PLA fired missiles into zones bracketing the ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung and conducted amphibious assault drills in Fujian.

The Clinton administration responded by ordering the largest US naval deployment in Asia since the Vietnam War. The carrier USS Independence was positioned near Taiwan, and the USS Nimitz battle group was dispatched from the Persian Gulf, transiting near the Strait. Beijing did not escalate further, and the crisis subsided after Taiwan's March 23 election, which Lee Teng-hui won decisively.

The episode had lasting strategic consequences:

• It accelerated the PLA's modernization drive, particularly investments in anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities, ballistic and cruise missiles, and submarines aimed at deterring future US carrier intervention.
• It deepened US–Japan defense cooperation, contributing to the 1997 revised Defense Guidelines.
• It reinforced Washington's policy of "strategic ambiguity" regarding the defense of Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.
• It hardened cross-Strait political identities and is frequently cited as a formative episode in contemporary US–China military competition.