Amethyst Incident - British involvement in the Chinese Civil War?

in 1949 HMS Amethyst was trapped on the Yangtze after being fired upon by Communist forces and grounded, while on the way from Shanghai to Nanking.

The incident eventually lead to HMS London trying to intervene to free Amethyst and was shelled from shore.

The ship did eventually escape.

I am now wondering if the incident could have become bad enough that Great Britain would have become involved in the Chinese Civil War on the side of the Republican forces.

And would the US could have become involved as well?
 
The problem is that after WWII the UK was heavily in debt and had enough on its plate just rebuilding its damaged country and keeping the Empire together until it could release it in an organised manner, why on earth would they therefore then decide to pick a fight with the Chinese communists? Wounded pride only takes you so far before reality steps in. They'd already either handed over or started surrendering their special privileges and territories in China during the war or afterwards, as Zeppelinair mentions by this point the Nationalists aren't looking so great and without a viable ally the British certainly can't prosecute a ground war even if they wanted to try, without a beneficial reason to start a highly expensive and likely bloody war they most likely they just chalk it up to experience as they did in our timeline.
 

RousseauX

Donor
in 1949 HMS Amethyst was trapped on the Yangtze after being fired upon by Communist forces and grounded, while on the way from Shanghai to Nanking.

The incident eventually lead to HMS London trying to intervene to free Amethyst and was shelled from shore.

The ship did eventually escape.

I am now wondering if the incident could have become bad enough that Great Britain would have become involved in the Chinese Civil War on the side of the Republican forces.

And would the US could have become involved as well?

No, US Marines actually did clash with Communist fighters after 1945, it's just that nobody in the US wanted to lay down American lives to save Chiang. But other then that the US did provide significant logistical support to the nationalists anyway.

The UK in 1945-49 wouldn't have being able to help the Nationalists anyway, it took 4 weeks to assemble a strike force in 1956 against Egypt on much more favorable conditions. Fighting the PLA in 1949 was out of the question.
 
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