evidence: Following the Chinese Civil War, tensions remained high between the Republic of China (ROC) and the Chinese Communist Party. In 1950 with the Communists victorious, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was created and established in mainland China. The ROC was forced to relocate to Taiwan and the outlying islands of Penghu, Quemoy, and Matsu. However, no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed, thus the civil war never formally ended. People have used this for justification of the PRC’s attack and capture of islands under the ROC’s jurisdiction. [...] Thus, the PRC and ROC built and strengthened their military forces on their respective sides of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Communists tried to pressure the ROC to abandon the islands. Eventually, the PRC began bombing the islands of Quemoy and Matsu heavily on August 23rd, 1958, while threatening an invasion. [...] These islands have always been considered part of China. In ’55, our military operation was designed to help the Nationalists withdraw from those islands, because they were considered too far away… [It was a] very limited operation, but it involved, at least implicitly, a greater commitment by us to the other offshores, the bigger ones, Quemoy and Matsu particularly.