Besides the US in 1958, has there been a post-WWII show of force by any military in the Taiwan Strait (excluding Taiwan and China)?

score:5

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There have been many such incidents.

Perhaps the most notable example is President Clinton's deployment of the Nimitz battle group during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996. This was in response to China's attempt to intimidate Taiwan with "missile tests"; @Carduus has gone into more details on this incident. This was far from the only time, however.

In 2007, the Kitty Hawk strike group similarly transited through the Taiwan Strait as a rebuke to China, which had previously denied it entry to Hong Kong. This back and forth was part of a chain of escalating tensions related to the Bush Administration's sale of weapons to Taiwan and meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Most recently, just a few months ago Trump dispatched two destroyers through the Taiwan Strait over Chinese drills in the region. As Reuters noted in that article, it was the first time in only "about a year" - hardly a rare event on a historical timescale of decades. Though, of course, this was not on the same level as a carrier transit, which some had suggested for this latest operation.

In addition to the US Navy, in 2001 Australia also sent a squadron of ships through the Taiwan Strait. It was widely considered a response on behalf of the United States to the Hainan Incident a couple of weeks earlier. As such, it was both a military and diplomatic show of force.

Upvote:1

Only once. Just before Taiwanese elections in 1996, China held several missile tests into the Taiwan Strait, ostensibly to intimidate the Taiwanese into making more China-friendly votes. In response, President Clinton deployed the Nimitz and the Independence as a show of solidarity. However, China-US relations have normalized in the past 20 years, and US leaders have been unwilling to stick up for Taiwan and snub China.

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