Second Taiwan Strait Crisis

Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
Part of Cold War and Chinese Civil War
Taiwan Strait
Date 23 August 1958 – 22 September 1958 (4 weeks and 2 days) Location Strait of Taiwan Result Ceasefire, status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Republic of China  United States	People's Republic of China
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Ching-kuo Hu Lien Ji Xingwen † Zhao Jiaxiang † Zhang Jie † Dwight D. Eisenhower	Mao Zedong Peng Dehuai Xu Xiangqian
Strength
92,000 704	215,000
Casualties and losses
440 ROC troops killed	460 PRC troops killed, 218 civilians killed.

92,000

The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, also called the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis, was a conflict that took place between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) in which the PRC shelled the islands of Kinmen and the nearby Matsu Islands along the east coast of the PRC (in the Taiwan Strait) to "liberate" Taiwan from the Chinese Nationalist Party, also called Kuomintang (KMT), and probe the extent of the United States defense of Taiwan's territory.

The crisis started with the 823 Artillery Bombardment (Chinese: 八二三砲戰; pinyin: Bā'èrsān Pàozhàn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Pat-jī-sam Phàu-chiàn) at 5:30 pm on August 23, 1958, when the PRC's People's Liberation Army (PLA) began an intense artillery bombardment against Quemoy (Kinmen). The ROC troops on Kinmen dug in and then returned fire. In the heavy exchange of fire, roughly 440 ROC soldiers and 460 PRC soldiers were killed.

This conflict was a continuation of the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, which had begun immediately after the Korean War was over. The Nationalist Chinese had begun to build on the island of Kinmen and the nearby Matsu archipelago. During 1954, the PLA began firing artillery at both Kinmen and some of the nearby Matsu islands.

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