For the first time, the United States publicly acknowledged that the U.S. Coast Guard and the Taiwan coast guard had conducted joint patrols in the Taiwan Strait, releasing photographs and details of the operation. The central truth is that the United States preserved peace in the Taiwan Strait by maintaining a visible, continuous maritime presence, and instability grew after that presence was withdrawn. For almost 20 years after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, a crucial part of America’s Taiwan policy was the U.S. 7th Fleet’s Taiwan Patrol Force, which conducted continuous patrols in the Taiwan Strait. Today, the Chinese Communist Party routinely claims that the Taiwan Strait is not fully international waters but waters under Chinese jurisdiction. China’s maritime coercion increasingly threatens Japan in the East China Sea, the Philippines in the South China Sea, and Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait.