The first detailed book in the West about the founding of China's navy and the significance of that founding era today

From 1949 to 1950, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) made crucial decisions to establish a navy and secure China's periphery. The civil war had been fought with a peasant army, yet to capture key offshore islands from the Nationalist rival, Mao Zedong needed to develop maritime capabilities. 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.

By providing the definitive account of this little-known yet critical moment in China's naval history, author Toshi Yoshihara shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the People's Republic of China paid close attention to naval affairs during its earliest years. Chinese leaders possessed a clear vision and independent agency, refashioning the stratagems and tactics honed over decades of revolutionary struggle on land for nautical purposes. Despite serious material shortcomings, a lack of formal naval training, and some early military disasters, the PLA ultimately scored 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 reveals how the navy-building process, sea battles, and contested offshore landings had a lasting influence on the PLA. Even today, the institution's identity, strategy, doctrine, and structure are conditioned by these early experiences and myths. Mao's Army Goes to Sea will help US policymakers and scholars place China's recent maritime achievements in proper historical context ― and provide insight into how its navy may act in the future.