Third Taiwan Strait Crisis - U.S. Military Response

U.S. Military Response

The U.S. government responded by staging the biggest display of American military might in Asia since the Vietnam War. President Clinton ordered additional ships into the region in March 1996. Two aircraft carrier battlegroups, Carrier Group Seven centered on USS Nimitz, and Carrier Group Five centered on USS Independence, were present in the region, and have been publically claimed to have entered the Taiwan Strait. The Independence battle group was homeported in Japan at the time, and was in the area during the crisis, but reportedly remained outside of the effective exclusion zone delineated by Chinese weapons tests, posing no challenge to what some have interpreted as a de facto Chinese blockade of the strait. There is no evidence that the Nimitz battlegroup ever reached the vicinity of Taiwan.