Book review: Hsiao-Ting Lin, Taiwan, the United States, and the Hidden History of the Cold War in Asia: Divided Allies
| Published date | 01 March 2025 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23477970241298765 |
| Author | Dolma Tsering |
| Date | 01 March 2025 |
164Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs 12(1)
Hsiao-Ting Lin, Taiwan, the United States, and the Hidden History
of the Cold War in Asia: Divided Allies. Routledge, 2022, 260p. ISBN:
9781032134994.
DOI: 10.1177/23477970241298765
In August 2022, then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a historic visit to
Taiwan in response to heightened tension and rhetoric between the United States,
China and Taiwan. During a press conference with the Taiwanese President,
Speaker Pelosi stated that her visit aimed to make it ‘unequivocally clear’ that the
United States stands with Taiwan. However, Lin’s latest book, Taiwan, the United
States, and the Hidden History of the Cold War in Asia, reminds us that relations
between Taiwan and the United States were historically driven by nationalism,
pragmatism and opportunism, resulting in a darker picture of uncertainties, mis-
trust, grievances and enmity (p. 3). The unstable and often contradictory relation-
ship described in this book reminds us of realpolitik realities. Hsiao-Ting has
written several books on the US, Kuomintang and Taiwan. Like all previous books,
this book is also developed from a newly declassified Chinese source from Taipei.
There are two key arguments that Lin conveys in this book. The first is that for
Chiang Kai-shek, securing Taiwan’s defence and the legitimacy of his leadership
and government was the primary concern and the end goal. To achieve this
national interest, the Generalissimo would take any action even if it conflicts with
its primary ally: the United States. By highlighting this argument, Lin challenges
the claims within the existing studies which argue that mainland recovery was the
key goal of the Chiang Kai-shek. He further contends that Mainland Recovery
was a means to achieve the end goal.
The second argument is that the United States’ priority in East Asia was Taiwan
Strait stability, which means avoiding war at all costs. Therefore, it kept all options
open including engagement with Beijing. However, for Chiang Kai-shek, who
considered US support for Taiwan as vital for his regime’s survival, such policies
were a nightmare. Hence, several major decisions that Chiang Kai-shek made
were in service of his bargaining strategy with America or in response to its
changing interest in Beijing.
To provide a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of the relations,
the author chose seven issues that had a major role in shaping the relations during
this period. Therefore, the book is structured based on the chronological events of
those seven issues. It starts with the first chapter on the first and second Taiwan
Strait crises in the 1950s. Lin argues that it was not US pressure, but secret commu-
nication and tactical consensus reached between two Chinese sides (the Communists
and the Nationalists) that resulted in a decision to maintain Chiang Kai-shek’s
control over the islands of Quemoy and Matsu. Following this, the second chapter
illuminates how Chiang Kai-shek manipulated the Mainland Offensive plan as lev-
erage against the US President John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) new China policy. In oppo-
sition to the popular view of mainland recovery as the end goal, Lin shows that,
from Chiang Kai-shek’s perspective, it was a means to achieve the end goal of
Taiwan’s defence and to consolidate the Kuomintang’s political legitimacy.
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