The Bandung Era } 103
could and would adopt an even more confrontational policy if the United
States continued down the path of its “anti-China policy.” A military dem-
onstration would show the United States the costs it might have to pay for
hostile policies toward China. It would also exploit contradictions between
Washington and Taipei. Threatening attack on the Offshores would either
force the United States to keep hands off, thereby risking rupture with Chiang
Kai-shek, or declare willingness to defend the Offshores, risking trying to
persuade the American people that those tiny islands were worth another war
with China. Either outcome could plausibly open the way to advantageous
negotiations: either with the Nationalists angered by US betrayal and support
for Taiwan independence, or with the Americans angered by Taipei’s effort to
entrap the United States in a war with the PRC.
On August 5, 1954, the Politburo agreed to Mao’s proposal to launch a
propaganda campaign proclaiming the need to liberate Taiwan. A month
later, on September 3, only several days before the Manila treaty creating an
anticommunist collective security organization in Southeast Asia was to be
signed, PLA artillery began shelling Jinmen and Mazu Islands. The next day,
three US aircraft carriers began converging on the area. Washington also
announced the United States would concur in any defensive action taken by
Nationalist forces. Shortly thereafter, Nationalist warplanes conducted in-
tensive attacks in the Xiamen vicinity.^24 Beijing responded by escalating the
conflict. On November 1, the Dachens came under very heavy bombardment.
PLA air and naval activity in the vicinity of the Dachens also increased.
The PLA’s bombardment of the Offshores did not deter Washington from
concluding a military alliance with the Republic of China. The treaty was
signed on December 2, 1954. Six days after the treaty was signed, Zhou Enlai
issued a statement declaring the treaty without legal basis, null and void, and
a treaty of war and aggression. Taiwan was part of China’s territory, and its
liberation was a matter entirely within the scope of China’s sovereignty and
internal affairs.^25 The shelling of Jinmen and Mazu continued until February
1955 and the seizure of the Dachen Islands. PLA forces assaulted and took,
after several failed attempts, one of the islands in the Dachen group on
January 18. This rendered the remaining islands in that group vulnerable,
and Nationalists forces were evacuated, leaving the islands to the PLA. Then
the shelling of Jinmen and Mazu ceased and Beijing shifted back to less con-
frontational tactics. On April 23, while attending the Bandung Conference,
Zhou said: “The Chinese people are friendly with the American people and
not willing to fight with them. The Chinese Government is willing to hold
consultations with the US Government on relaxing the tension in the Far
East, the tension in the Taiwan area in particular.”^26
Beijing followed Zhou’s statement by raising the notion of a possible
peaceful liberation of Taiwan. In a report to the National People’s Congress,
Zhou said that there were two ways China could liberate Taiwan, by war or