Against The Limits - The Sino-us Interaction In The 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis And Crisis Management

After over 40-year development, the studies on crises have achieved abundant fruits at the international level. However, in China, such studies sprung up much later, and few Chinese diplomatic crisis cases has fell under the theoretical scrutiny. The author chooses the Quemoy Crisis in 1958 to carry out such a bold trial. This case is representative in that it not only gave the crisis management goals and approaches of both players-China and the United States- a full play, but also helped set down the tones for the bilateral policies concerning Taiwan for the next three decades.By drawing on domestic and foreign research endeavors concerned, this thesis presents an elaborate anatomy of this crisis, emphasizing on its development path. The theoretical framework, built up with processed and synthesized viewpoints, can be categorized into four levels: the intervening variable, the international system, actors and their interactions. The anatomy leads to the finding that although the first three levels do contribute to the domestic and international background of this crisis, it is the interaction level that plays a pivot role in explaining its evolution. The author goes further to define China and the United States as "Hard Middle-liners" in their interactions, as could be witnessed in their crisis management goal-setting, expectations for the adversaries, and the bargaining approaches. Such findings have been proved again in the 1995-96 Taiwan Crisis. Based on the research, the author suggests that decision-makers in crises should set limited goals and strive for win-win. By establishing efficient communication channels and sending clear signals, all concerning parties could avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation at most, thus achieve successful crisis management.