alternatehistory.com

In the aftermath of the disaster of the Great Leap Forward, Chiang Kai-shek began making plans to launch an invasion of the mainland to regain power. Even though the United States refused to support the plan, he continued to move the operation further and in 1965 he met with his top military advisers at the Republic of China Military Academy where they drafted the plans for the invasion. It's worth noting that the officers all prepared their wills in anticipation of the conflict.

In August of 1965 Chiang deployed a warship carrying special forces to the Island of Dongshang, right off the coast of the mainland, but ship was sunk by a PLA Navy torpedo boat killing hundreds of soldiers. In November, 2 more ROC ships came across 12 PRC ships leading to one being sunk.

These disaster convinced Chiang that National Glory would fail, though the project would not be fully abandoned until 1972 with the PRC taking the ROC's spot in the UN the year before.

The scenario here is that this initial mission is a success with the troops gaining intelligence necessary to prepare an invasion and the second incident never occurs. So Chiang goes through with Project National Glory in either 1967 or 1968. While this would most likely be a Nationalist disaster, there are still large implications for both the ROC and the PRC, especially with the Cultural Revolution occurring at this time.

So what are the effects on the Cultural Revolution? How does this affect China's relations with the rest of the world, especially the US? Can the ROC survive if it's a large scale disaster? What are the wider consequences in global politics and the Cold War?

Anything else?
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