Why didn't Mao Conquer Taiwan? (Short Animated Documentary)

in 1949 Mao Zedong proclaimed the creation of the People's Republic of China whilst he was doing this the Chinese civil war was still raging on with the Kuomintang opposition fleeing to the island of Taiwan and by 1951 all of mainland China in the island of Hainan was under the control of the Chinese Communist Party which raises the obvious question why didn't Malkin Kurt I wan what the first reason was that Mao still needed to consolidate the Communist Party's hold on mainland China now the Communist armed forces the People's Liberation Army was about three times the size of the kawaman tank military but numbers aren't everything the PLA had a miniscule Air Force whereas the Kuomintang had a modern one made up of mostly American fighters and bombers also the PLA didn't have a Navy whereas the overwhelming majority of China's old ships had been taken to Taiwan Mao stationed troops along the coastline and prepared for an invasion of the remaining Kuomintang positions the closest of which were the CREM Islands when the go-ahead was given the invasion was to put it mildly a disaster this setback wasn't enough to deter mouth' oh and he ordered plans for the final conquest of Taiwan to be drafted the plan was to buy as many transportation vessels as possible and simply overwhelm the island with sheer numbers this plan was scrapped because frankly it was a stupid one and also Mao was concerned that the USA would intervene if he invaded which he was right about because the United States placed his fleet between China and Taiwan and made it clear to Mao that any invasion would also mean war with them however by this point Mao had another issue to deal with since the Korean War had just begun next door they so direct fighting between Chinese and American forces and importantly so US President Harry Truman commits to defend non communist regimes in the area including Chiang kai-shek's Kuomintang government in Taiwan in 1953 a ceasefire ended the fighting on the Korean Peninsula and so mauka turned his attention back to Taiwan and boy did he because the next year he ordered the shelling of the kwame Islands to which the Taiwanese government responded tit for tat things began to escalate and President Truman did three things first of all he sent reinforcements to Taiwan second-team Congress passed legislation committing the us to defend Taiwan in the event of invasion and third he threatened to nuke China this worked and Mao somewhat opposed to being nuked ordered his forces to desist and this threat convinced Mao of one thing that China needed its own nuclear weapons if it was ever going to stand up to the United States or ever hope to assert itself over Taiwan however before these nuclear weapon were finished my award at the shelling of the islands again because at this point why not it was something to do I guess this time the air forces got involved in hundreds of people died in president eisenhower threatened to invade the mainland if things didn't calm down which they promptly did now this was the last time that China attempted to forcibly capture territory from Chiang kai-shek where Mao died in 1976 his successor preferred a policy of peaceful reunification in the end Mao didn't conquer Taiwan for one very simple reason he couldn't the US Navy sat between China and Taiwan and it was by far the most powerful in the world and where Mao tried to use force and nuclear retaliation by the United States was an ever-present threat not to mention that any attempt by Mao to take the island would have been costly in lives and money which given the fact he was trying to build a Revolutionary Government was something that he needed more than Taiwan I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching but thanks to my patreon supporters whom you can see on screen now and with an extra special thanks to James Bissonnette Ike Danny Maloney calling Castleman Marvin Castle Rob Waterhouse Aaron the white Jordan long way Chris wicker Gustav Swann Gareth Turner Marcus Ozma Maggie packs Kowski David Silverman spinning three plates Spencer Lightfoot Lexi Schwinn Winston Cawood Kelly moneymaker Anthony Beckett the original cage Robert Wetzel Skye Chappell par shoe 19 and Moe

Channel: History Matters

Views: 4,171,317

Keywords: History, Matters, Short, Animated, Documentary, Historic, Historical, China, Chinese, Civil War, 1949, Chairman, Taiwan, Why, Government, Divided, Koumintang, Chiang, Kai-Shek, Finish, Conquer, Taiping, Straits Crisis, USA, United States, America

Id: uYiEXwti1_U

Length: 3min 31sec (211 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 24 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/cxxper01]

Because ccp didn’t have a functional navy back then plus the Korean War broke out?

[u/MadKlauss]

I wonder how it would have gone if Mao pushed it and had the US decided to invade China.

[u/e6k01rs]

Good explanation

[u/jhn_glt]

Shallow