quality:corruption
Taiwan Strait tensions

Though viewed as a military liability by the US, the ROC viewed its remaining islands in Fujian as vital for any future campaign to defeat the PRC and retake mainland China. On 3 September 1954, the First Taiwan Strait Crisis started with the PRC shelling Kinmen. The PRC captured the Yijiangshan Islands on 19 January 1955, leading to the ROC abandoning the Dachen Islands the following month. On 24 January 1955, the United States Congress passed the Formosa Resolution authorizing the President to defend the ROC's offshore islands. The First Taiwan Straits crisis ended in March 1955 when the PLA ceased its bombardment. The crisis ended during the Bandung conference.

The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis began on 23 August 1958 with air and naval engagements between PRC and ROC forces, leading to intense artillery bombardment of Kinmen by the PRC and Xiamen by the ROC, and ended on November of the same year. PLA patrol boats blockaded the islands from ROC supply ships. Though the US rejected Chiang Kai-shek's proposal to bomb mainland China artillery batteries, it quickly moved to supply fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles to the ROC. It also provided amphibious assault ships to land supplies, as a sunken ROC naval vessel was blocking the harbor. On 7 September, the US escorted a convoy of ROC supply ships and the PRC refrained from firing.

The third crisis occurred in 1995–96. The PRC responded to Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's visit to the United States, and the U.S. recognition of Lee as a representative of Taiwan, with military exercises. The exercises were also meant to deter Taiwanese voters from supporting Lee in the 1996 election; Lee won the election. Two U.S. aircraft carriers were deployed during the crisis; they were not attacked and deescalation followed.

US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi 's visit to Taiwan in August 2022 triggered PRC military exercises across the Taiwan Strait. She originally intended to travel to Taiwan in April 2022, but was delayed due to COVID-19. She rescheduled the trip to August as part of a wider Asian trip. The White House was reported to have been initially divided over the appropriateness of the trip but later affirmed Pelosi's right to visit Taiwan. As a result, the PLA announced four days of unprecedented military live-fire drills, in six zones that encircle the island on the busiest international waterways and aviation routes. In response to the announcement, ROC officials complained that the PRC's live-fire drills were an invasion of Taiwan's territorial space and a direct challenge to free air and sea navigation.