The Battle of Kinmen Spawned The US’s Diplomatic Policy Of Defending Taiwan

The Battle of Kinmen was also known as The Kinmen Defense Battle.

The information showed that the Kinmen archipelago, located 1.8 km to the east of the CCP-controlled Jiaoyu and 210 km to the west of Taiwan Island, occupied an important strategic position. In 1949, the CCP government commandeered a large number of fishing boats and dispatched around 10,000 troops of the 28th army corps’ 3 regiments to launch a landing operation in an attempt to capture Kinmen in 3 days.

Through the multi-service joint operations, the Nationalist troops repulsed the attack by the CCP’s so-called People’s Liberation Army (PLA) after three days and nights of bloody battles and completely wiped out the CCP’s landing vessels and PLA troops who engaged in three attempts of beach landings. The Kinmen Defense Battle, which was regarded as the greatest victory of the Nationalist troops during the Chinese Civil War, prevented CCP from launching an effective offensive in the short term, thereby offering Taiwan precious development time and space.On the other hand, the bravery of the Nationalist troops in the Battle of Kinmen earned the recognition of the U.S. The then-Commander-in-chief in Far East Douglas McArthur submitted the strategic plan to contain communist party in Asia to the State Department the next year, where he made clear that in light of Taiwan’s great strategic importance, the U.S. should extend broad military support to Taiwan and deploy navy and air force to defend the island.The plan established the tone for the US policy on Taiwan continuing to date, namely defending Taiwan from the CCP’s invasion.