Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, China, Volume II

94. Telegram From the Ambassador in the Republic of China (Rankin) to the Department of State¹

Taipei, February 7, 1955—10 a.m.

533. Off-Shore Islands. Department’s 449² reached Embassy 6:15 o’clock this morning or over 12 hours after despatch of Taipei’s 532.³ Chinese waited until early morning deadline for local newspapers, took additional precaution of revising statement once more and placing buffer paragraph between reference to Quemoy and to US assistance, and gave text to press, this action obviously taken on direct orders from President Chiang. I was informed by message from acting Foreign Minister at 2:10 this morning. Text as issued in immediately following telegram.⁴

Actually final Chinese text appears to differ in no important respect from revision as suggested Department’s 449. “Its view” is less specific than “in view of Government of United States”, but from context meaning is clearly identical. I do not regard any of differences as important and hope Department will share this opinion.

Rankin

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 293.9322/2–755. Top Secret; Niact. Received at 11:14 p.m. on February 6. Passed to USUN by the Department at Rankin’s request.

2. Telegram 449 to Taipei, February 6, drafted by Robertson and signed by Hoover, requested changes in the proposed Chinese statement. It suggested that the first paragraph should be revised to read as follows:

   “In order to meet the new challenge of international Communist aggression the Government of the Republic of China has decided to redeploy the forces defending certain offshore islands and to strengthen the defense of other important Islands such as Quemoy, Matsu, etc. with the forces now in the Tachen area. Through such consolidation, the defense of Taiwan and the other offshore islands will be further strengthened. In the spirit of Sino-American cooperation in the defense of their respective territories in the Western Pacific the Government of the United States is being kept currently informed.”

   It also suggested the substitution of “as are in the view of the Government of the United States” for “which are in its views”. (Department of State, Central Files, 293.9322/2–655)

3. Supra.

4. Telegram 534 from Taipei, February 7. (Department of State, Central Files, 793.5/2–655) The first paragraph of the Chinese statement reads as follows:

   “In order to meet the new challenge of international Communist aggression, the Government of the Republic of China has decided to redeploy the forces defending certain off-shore islands and to strengthen the defense of other important islands, such as Quemoy, Matsu, et cetera, with the forces now in the Tachen area. Through such consolidation, the defense of Taiwan and the Pescadores and the other off-shore islands will be further strengthened. The Government of the Republic of China, in the spirit of the Sino-American cooperation in the joint defense of their respective territories in the western Pacific, has consulted with the United States Government concerning the redeployment of the forces of the Tachen Area.”

   The complete text of the statement is in New York Times, February 7, 1955. The text of a statement issued on February 7 by President Chiang, relating the redeployment of troops to the Nationalist objective of recovering the mainland, was sent to the Department in despatch 386 from Taipei, February 8. (Department of State, Central Files, 793.00/2–855)