ABSTRACT
In the Chinese Civil War the highly motivated People’s Liberation Army (PLA) crushed the demoralized Nationalist Army during its campaigns of 1948 and 1949. However, the victorious Communist army, which had specialized in guerrilla war fare in the countryside, confronted an unprecedented challenge when its soldiers reached the southeastern coast of China. The PLA did not have a navy, and the Taiwan Strait served as a natural barrier preventing any PLA invasion of Taiwan that could quickly conclude the Civil War by defeating the remnant Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi).
