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

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) established a navy from 1949 to 1950 to secure China's periphery and capture key offshore islands from the Nationalist rival. Mao Zedong's Army Goes to Sea is a ground-breaking history of the founding of the Chinese navy and Communist China's earliest island-seizing campaigns. It reveals how Chinese leaders refashioned stratagems and tactics honed over decades of revolutionary struggle on land for nautical purposes, and how the navy-building process, sea battles, and contested offshore landings had a lasting influence on the PLA.

Format: Hardback
Length: 173 pages
Publication date: 01 February 2023
Publisher: Georgetown University Press

From 1949 to 1950, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) undertook critical decisions to establish a navy and secure China's periphery. The civil war had been fought with a peasant army, yet Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party of China, recognized the need to develop maritime capabilities to capture key offshore islands from the Nationalist rival. This led to the establishment of the Chinese navy and the commencement of Communist China's earliest island-seizing campaigns.

Toshi Yoshihara's book, "Mao's Army Goes to Sea," is a groundbreaking history of the founding of the Chinese navy and Communist China's earliest island-seizing campaigns. In this definitive account, Yoshihara demonstrates how Chinese leaders repurposed the stratagems and tactics honed over decades of revolutionary struggle on land for nautical purposes. Despite significant challenges, the PLA ultimately achieved important victories over its Nationalist foes as it captured offshore islands to secure its position.

Drawing extensively from newly available Chinese-language sources, this book sheds light on the navy-building process, sea battles, and contested offshore landings that had a lasting influence on the PLA. Even today, the institutions' identity, strategy, doctrine, and structure are conditioned by these early experiences and myths.

Mao's Army Goes to Sea will be of immense value to US policymakers and scholars seeking to understand China's recent maritime achievements in proper historical context. It will also provide insightful perspectives on how China's navy may act in the future, given the evolving geopolitical landscape.

Weight: 431g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781647122812