Chiang Kai-shek Goes Through With Project National Glory

While I agree the generalissimo can’t reverse the civil war twenty years on, In the bloodletting of the gpcr, The Kit might be able to pick up some defectors, and a few islands. If you read his propaganda manifesto Chang kaishek talks to the nation, He offered asylum, to local officials. Substantial raises and new positions given to cadre who change sides. Something just might happen under the cover of chaos.

There were occasional defections in OTL esp. PLAAF pilots, but no one significant.
 
If the Sino-Soviet border crisis turns into war, you could see Chiang try and go forward with the PRC's troops distracted. However, the new pro-Soviet government in China would not allow them much leeway in terms of gains (likely just Hainan and other islands they can grab it during the war).

In the 1960s, some Liberal Party politicians supported handing over Hong Kong to the ROC. If we somehow have the UK continue to recognize the ROC into the handover and Taiwan remains under a militaristic government, that would be a stronger point to prepare for an invasion (of course, history shows that Hong Kong could easily be conquered with a significant troop presence).

This is a bit of a stretch in terms of retaking the mainland, but if Lin Biao ends up launching a successful coup over Mao (given the PRC's revisionism, it's unclear if he really did), Chinese reunification and a KMT-CCP coalition would be much more likely. After Lin's OTL death, Chiang cried for days, emotionally devastated over the death of his old friend.
 
Maybe this could happen if the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution continue long enough, the tech gap grows, and the people and military are tired enough of the regime that they basically don’t fight? I don’t see any way China can lose at the time though.
 
Maybe this could happen if the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution continue long enough, the tech gap grows, and the people and military are tired enough of the regime that they basically don’t fight? I don’t see any way China can lose at the time though.

The only way Chiang would ever succeed in an invasion of the mainland, short of making China glow in the dark, is if the people on the coast - nay - if the entire mainland broke out in open revolt and push the PLA beyond its ability to cope. Maybe an alt-Tiananmen spiralled out of control? Maybe Chiang had been secretly building up a spy network to spread information on the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution? Who knows. Whether the revolt would want him back is an additional issue, because for all the CCP's faults, it's not as if the KMT are clean either.

Regardless, paralyzing the communist government and its party military is an absolute must in a KMT reclamation of China. There's no way to fight the PLA otherwise. They've already lost long before they fled to Taiwan.
 
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