72 { China’s Quest
was decided not to use US military power to protect Taiwan. Stated bluntly,
Taiwan was to be sacrificed for the sake of courting the PRC away from the
Soviet Union. This decision was formally approved in the form of NSC mem-
orandum 48/2 on December 30, 1949.
Opponents of this policy soon leaked news of it to the media. Once
the top-level decision to sacrifice Taiwan was made late in 1949, the State
Department sent a classified directive to US embassies around the world noti-
fying them that the fall of Taiwan to communist forces was “widely antici-
pated,” and that when it occurred, “false impressions” of the island’s special
military value should be countered. US missions were to explain that the dis-
position of Taiwan was a domestic affair of China and did not impinge on
US interests. Taiwan had “no special military significance” and “is a strictly
Chinese affair. ... China has never been a naval power and the island is of no
special strategic advantage to the Chinese communist armed forces.” This
ultra-sensitive directive was leaked to the New York Times, which published
it on January 4, 1950.^31
The day after the Times article appeared, Truman publicly defended the
new policy. US China policy had traditionally respected the territorial unity
of China and would not change now, Truman said. Referencing the Cairo
Declaration of 1943, Truman noted that the United States had accepted the
exercise of Chinese authority over Taiwan since Japan’s surrender. The United
States had no “predatory designs” on Taiwan or a desire for military bases
there “at this time.” Nor did the United States “have any intention of uti-
lizing its Armed Forces to interfere in the present situation,” Truman said.
“The United States Government will not pursue a course which will lead to
involvement in the civil conflict in China.” Nor would the United States pro-
vide military aid or advice to Chinese forces on Taiwan.^32 The decision to sac-
rifice Taiwan was extremely controversial. There was very strong opposition
founded squarely on US geostrategic interests. Still, it was a clear and author-
itative decision made by the president with the support of his closest advisors
and embodied in a formal NSA decision memorandum. Beijing could not
have wished for a US policy more favorable to its “liberation” of Taiwan. Mao,
however, bungled the opportunity.
As Washington was moving to wash its hands of Taiwan, the CCP was
preparing invasion of that island, a move it considered the “last campaign
to unify China.”^33 On June 14, 1949, as communist armies marshaled for the
push into central China, Mao ordered the commander of PLA forces moving
into eastern China to plan for invasion of Taiwan in the winter of 1949–1950.
Defeat of a PLA invasion of Quemoy Island in Xiamen harbor in October and
an assault on the Zhoushan Islands off Zhejiang in November 1949 increased
PLA awareness of the importance of air and naval capabilities in amphibious
assaults, and of CCP weaknesses in these areas. Consequently, in November
1949 the CCP approved a new PLA plan for a step-by-step campaign against