Mao's Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China's Navy

What Yoshihara seemed to promise with this monograph was an analysis that connected the establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy with contemporary policy. In that respect we have a winner, in that the parallels between the first Maoist naval operations to clear the islands of the Chinese mainland, with current Chinese naval operations are quite clear. What with the "nibbling" to create a bigger zone of control (one island at a time), the fusion of all maritime assets (naval, para-military, and civilian), and a tendency to improvisation.

The author also makes a good argument that the establishment of the Chinese Red Navy was no afterthought, and was never merely a branch of the PLA, though the resources might have been slim. show more Traditions were definitely established in 1949-50 that continue to have an institutional impact. Even with the increasing interest in "Blue Water" operations.

Most important though is that one can now piece together a good first overview of the campaign of reduction against the off-shore bastions of the KMT, and how the PLAN did learn from its mistakes, and there were many. This is even though Yoshihara suspects that the Chinese authorities are being economical about casualties and the Soviet influence in their semi-open literature. I'm left with little doubt that if the decision is made to try and take Taiwan by main force, it will be carefully planned and with a clear-eyed sense of reality; unless the higher leadership feels a desperate need to stage a security "spectacular." show less