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

Full transcript

1. 0:00in 1949 Mao Zedong proclaimed the
2. 0:02creation of the People's Republic of
3. 0:04China whilst he was doing this the
4. 0:06Chinese civil war was still raging on
5. 0:07with the Kuomintang opposition fleeing
6. 0:09to the island of Taiwan and by 1951 all
7. 0:12of mainland China in the island of
8. 0:14Hainan was under the control of the
9. 0:15Chinese Communist Party which raises the
10. 0:18obvious question why didn't Malkin Kurt
11. 0:20I wan what the first reason was that Mao
12. 0:22still needed to consolidate the
13. 0:23Communist Party's hold on mainland China
14. 0:25now the Communist armed forces the
15. 0:27People's Liberation Army was about three
16. 0:29times the size of the kawaman tank
17. 0:30military but numbers aren't everything
18. 0:32the PLA had a miniscule Air Force
19. 0:34whereas the Kuomintang had a modern one
20. 0:36made up of mostly American fighters and
21. 0:38bombers also the PLA didn't have a Navy
22. 0:40whereas the overwhelming majority of
23. 0:42China's old ships had been taken to
24. 0:43Taiwan Mao stationed troops along the
25. 0:45coastline and prepared for an invasion
26. 0:47of the remaining Kuomintang positions
27. 0:49the closest of which were the CREM
28. 0:50Islands when the go-ahead was given the
29. 0:52invasion was to put it mildly a disaster
30. 0:55this setback wasn't enough to deter
31. 0:57mouth' oh and he ordered plans for the
32. 0:58final conquest of Taiwan to be drafted
33. 1:00the plan was to buy as many
34. 1:02transportation vessels as possible and
35. 1:04simply overwhelm the island with sheer
36. 1:05numbers this plan was scrapped because
37. 1:07frankly it was a stupid one and also Mao
38. 1:09was concerned that the USA would
39. 1:11intervene if he invaded which he was
40. 1:12right about because the United States
41. 1:14placed his fleet between China and
42. 1:15Taiwan and made it clear to Mao that any
43. 1:17invasion would also mean war with them
44. 1:19however by this point Mao had another
45. 1:20issue to deal with since the Korean War
46. 1:22had just begun next door they so direct
47. 1:24fighting between Chinese and American
48. 1:26forces and importantly so US President
49. 1:28Harry Truman commits to defend non
50. 1:30communist regimes in the area including
51. 1:32Chiang kai-shek's Kuomintang government
52. 1:33in Taiwan in 1953 a ceasefire ended the
53. 1:36fighting on the Korean Peninsula and so
54. 1:38mauka turned his attention back to
55. 1:39Taiwan and boy did he because the next
56. 1:42year he ordered the shelling of the
57. 1:43kwame Islands to which the Taiwanese
58. 1:45government responded tit for tat things
59. 1:46began to escalate and President Truman
60. 1:48did three things first of all he sent
61. 1:50reinforcements to Taiwan second-team
62. 1:52Congress passed legislation committing
63. 1:54the us to defend Taiwan in the event of
64. 1:56invasion and third he threatened to nuke
65. 1:58China this worked and Mao somewhat
66. 2:00opposed to being nuked ordered his
67. 2:02forces to desist and this threat
68. 2:04convinced Mao of one thing that China
69. 2:06needed its own nuclear weapons if it was
70. 2:08ever going to stand up to the United
71. 2:09States or ever hope to assert itself
72. 2:11over Taiwan however before these nuclear
73. 2:13weapon
74. 2:13were finished my award at the shelling
75. 2:15of the islands again because at this
76. 2:16point why not it was something to do I
77. 2:18guess this time the air forces got
78. 2:20involved in hundreds of people died in
79. 2:22president eisenhower threatened to
80. 2:23invade the mainland if things didn't
81. 2:25calm down which they promptly did now
82. 2:27this was the last time that China
83. 2:28attempted to forcibly capture territory
84. 2:30from Chiang kai-shek where Mao died in
85. 2:321976 his successor preferred a policy of
86. 2:34peaceful reunification in the end Mao
87. 2:37didn't conquer Taiwan for one very
88. 2:38simple reason he couldn't the US Navy
89. 2:41sat between China and Taiwan and it was
90. 2:43by far the most powerful in the world
91. 2:44and where Mao tried to use force and
92. 2:46nuclear retaliation by the United States
93. 2:48was an ever-present threat not to
94. 2:50mention that any attempt by Mao to take
95. 2:52the island would have been costly in
96. 2:53lives and money which given the fact he
97. 2:55was trying to build a Revolutionary
98. 2:56Government was something that he needed
99. 2:58more than Taiwan I hope you enjoyed this
100. 3:00episode and thank you for watching but
101. 3:02thanks to my patreon supporters whom you
102. 3:03can see on screen now and with an extra
103. 3:05special thanks to James Bissonnette Ike
104. 3:07Danny Maloney calling Castleman Marvin
105. 3:10Castle Rob Waterhouse Aaron the white
106. 3:12Jordan long way Chris wicker Gustav
107. 3:14Swann Gareth Turner
108. 3:16Marcus Ozma Maggie packs Kowski David
109. 3:18Silverman spinning three plates
110. 3:20Spencer Lightfoot Lexi Schwinn Winston
111. 3:23Cawood Kelly moneymaker
112. 3:24Anthony Beckett the original cage Robert
113. 3:27Wetzel Skye Chappell par shoe 19 and Moe