NEWS & EVENTS

Book talk: Island Campaigns and the Founding of China’s Navy

On February 9th, Dr. Toshi Yoshihara, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments – CSBA, joined us to discuss his latest book, Mao’s Army Goes to Sea.

In his presentation, Dr. Yoshihara examined the origin story of the Chinese Navy, looking into the key decisions and developments made by the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) to develop maritime capabilities to secure important islands and positions from Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) forces during the Chinese Civil War. Dr. Yoshihara also honed in on the disastrous Jinmen Campaign, where Communist forces were met with strong resistance by the KMT, and the Hainan Campaign, where Communist forces were able to learn from previous mistakes at campaigns like Jinmen, resulting in a swift victory.