On September 3, 1954, as diplomats headed to Manila to sign the SEATO treaty, Mao’s forces bombarded Nationalist forces on Quemoy Island, off the coast of Fujian province, barely a mile from the Communist-held city of Xiamen. In November, Mao ordered bombing raids on the Kuomintang-held Dachen Island, off the coast of Zhejiang province. On December 2, the United States and the Republic of China signed their mutual defense treaty. In January 1955, the People’s Liberation Army landed on one of the islands in the Dachen chain.
