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Michael Turner
October 11, 2007
POS 360 Case Study Paper


In the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, I felt that China displayed a great example of a realist reaction to the situation at hand. In the case, China reacted to the President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan attempting to tour the United States and other countries in a plea to be accepted into the United Nations. In the end, China was able to contain Taiwan and convince America to agree with their stance and not accept Taiwan into the United Nations.
In the realist perspective, anarchy is viewed as something to fear and that idea is what realism thrives off of. Anarchy is not something to be encouraged and China must do what they can to avoid it being a problem. They had the power in 1996 to be able to contain Taiwan’s attempts of being recognized on an international stage and did so using realist strategies.
The ability to be feared by other countries is a very important aspect in the realist train of thought. In this case, China did that very well. When all of this was going on with Taiwan’s president being in the United States and trying to express his thoughts on the matter, China reacted with missiles and other military force to control the island of Taiwan. They placed large battleships in the Taiwan Strait and were shooting missiles around the coast of the country for many weeks until the situation dissolved. In doing this, they intimidated Taiwan and their president and also intimidated the United States into seeing things their way. They played the bully role and in the end it worked out in their favor. By bossing the country around, they were then feared by the country which is the ultimate goal in the realist thought process.
Immediately when China heard about what Taiwan’s president was doing, they reacted quickly and efficiently. They did what they had to do to maintain their power in the region. Because they had more man power and...