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> ... they gave up their best chance to retake Taiwan (while the Americans weren’t interested) to meddle in Korea instead. My understanding of the timeline/cau

> ... they gave up their best chance to retake Taiwan (while the Americans weren’t interested) to meddle in Korea instead. My understanding of the timeline/causation in 1950 is the other way around. Initially China was only going to offer largely moral support to North Korea. On June 27 the U.S. Seventh Fleet was sent to the Taiwan Strait to prevent PRC from taking Taiwan. This was a factor in China's decision to enter the Korean War in October. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/taiwan-strait-crises https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/taiwan-strait... > U.S. policy toward East Asia in the early Cold War contributed to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait. In late 1949 and early 1950, American officials were prepared to let PRC forces cross the Strait and defeat Chiang, but after the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, the United States sent its Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent the Korean conflict from spreading south. The appearance of the Seventh Fleet angered the Chinese Communists, who transferred their troops poised for an invasion of Taiwan to the Korean front. This served to delay military conflict in the Strait until the United States withdrew its fleet after the Korean War. http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1069/explaining-chinas-intervention-in-the-korean-war-in-1950 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1069/explaining-chi... > In fact, at the initial stage, China took a passive response to the situation in North Korea. Besides moral support for Kim, the only material support provided by Beijing at the time was to send approximately 14,000 Korean Chinese who were then serving in the PLA back to Korea.8 However, three subsequent events dramatically changed Beijing’s attitudes. > The first is that on June 27, the U.S. Seventh Fleet was sent to the Taiwan Strait to ‘neutralise’ the situation. ...

seanmcdirmid 3y ago
Kim asked permission from Mao (who then asked Stalin m) to invade, with the support from China and Russia that would entail. America became very interested in east Asia after the initial invasion, not just when MacArther went too far into North Korea. It was basically over for their plans to retake Taiwan once Kim crossed troops into South Korea, Mao had to have known that. The USA completely expected Taiwan to fall to the communists before the Korean War, and they were pretty untrusting of Chiang Kai Shek at the time, they didn’t really care. But after the Korean War started, that sentiment transformed overnight into “Taiwan must not fall to the communists at any cost.”

seanmcdirmid 3y ago

Kim asked permission from Mao (who then asked Stalin m) to invade, with the support from China and Russia that would entail. America became very interested in east Asia after the initial invasion, not just when MacArther went too far into North Korea. It was basically over for their plans to retake Taiwan once Kim crossed troops into South Korea, Mao had to have known that. The USA completely expected Taiwan to fall to the communists before the Korean War, and they were pretty untrusting of Chiang Kai Shek at the time, they didn’t really care. But after the Korean War started, that sentiment transformed overnight into “Taiwan must not fall to the communists at any cost.”