Strait Rituals

Abstract

In Strait Rituals: China, Taiwan, and the United States and in the Taiwan Strait Crises, 1954-1958, this book argues that the Taiwan Strait Crises could be understood as an evolution towards tacit accommodation. Exploiting new materials from mainland China, Taiwan and the United States, a reevaluation of the international relations of all three parties via a simultaneous presentation of their disparate perspectives is made. At the heart of its argument, this book proposes that conflict resolution had become ritualized progressively as the protagonists implicitly constructed a framework of understanding. An uneasy peace was thus a product of a ritualization of discourses and maneuvers, embodied in verbal signaling and symbolic gestures. These exacting understandings laid the groundwork for a substantive change in the nature of Sino-American relations - from hostile nuclear confrontation in 1954 to tacit accommodation in 1958. In particular, this book highlights relevant aspects of “culture” to better understand the intricacies of the Sino-US-ROC relations. This aspect complements existing scholarship on realism, strategy, economics, ideology and domestic aspects of the Taiwan Strait crises. Strait Rituals will show the significance of “ritualization” in explaining the transition of “tacit communication” to “tacit accommodation.” It will demonstrate how both parties engaged in ritualized actions that facilitated the process of conflict resolution. Strait Rituals will establish how the US and China achieved a limited but shared understanding of the modus operandi of the other party through their ritualized actions in terms of their use of public symbols, identity issues, cultural images and official discourses on one hand, and military posturing, diplomatic canvassing for international support, and negotiations on the other hand.