W/I: China Invades Taiwan During Korean War

China Invades Taiwan During Korean War

  • China Seizes Taiwan :: No US/UN Assisstance

    Votes: 5 5.1%
  • China Seizes Taiwan :: With US/UN Assistance

    Votes: 5 5.1%
  • Taiwan Defends Its Self :: No US/UN Assistance

    Votes: 2 2.0%
  • Taiwan Defends Its Self :: With US/UN Assistance

    Votes: 74 75.5%
  • Nuclear Party, Baby!

    Votes: 12 12.2%

  • Total voters
    98
If a "barge blitz" is used, surely those barges were not sent to the PRC overland, wouldn't the US send ships to begin to intercept (possibly "quarantine") them knowing something is up before too large an armada is built up in the PRC? An early version of the Cuba Missile Crisis perhaps. And, sure the PRC has a large number of people to conscript, but especially in the 1950s do they really have the armaments to go along with the people to lead a successful invasion of the RoC without affecting their commitments to the Korean War?

More questions- Could the PRC use an invasion of the RoC as a negotiating tactic... "USA, we will pull out of Korea in exchange for you giving a free hand to our invasion underway in Taiwan". Would the USA sacrifice Taiwan just for Korea? How would this affect Vietnam later on?

Bump - awesome questions.
 
If diplomacy fails and the war continues into 1951, it could lead to full blown war in Asia. Perhaps even Europe.

This is only 5 years after world war 2. Nobody in Europe or in Washington wants war there. If the Soviets threaten intervention, the war is going to be over very soon.
 
More questions- Could the PRC use an invasion of the RoC as a negotiating tactic... "USA, we will pull out of Korea in exchange for you giving a free hand to our invasion underway in Taiwan". Would the USA sacrifice Taiwan just for Korea? How would this affect Vietnam later on?
Not gonna happen, they certainly won't sacrifice a country they promised to protect, not when they can protect Taiwan easily, they'd lose all international credibility and Truman would risk being impeached for even considering agreeing to this.

Vietnam depends a lot on butterflies, China expanding the war like this is going to escalate things, they escalate far enough and anything could happen
 
No no no. Had the Korean war not occured, the plan was for the PLA to sieze Taiwan as a final act of the Civil War. The US by then has given up on the hopeless KMT government.

There is no way that the 1 year old PRC is going to attack the UN forces in Korea and invade Taiwan simultaneously, it was one or the other.
 

CalBear

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If a "barge blitz" is used, surely those barges were not sent to the PRC overland, wouldn't the US send ships to begin to intercept (possibly "quarantine") them knowing something is up before too large an armada is built up in the PRC? An early version of the Cuba Missile Crisis perhaps. And, sure the PRC has a large number of people to conscript, but especially in the 1950s do they really have the armaments to go along with the people to lead a successful invasion of the RoC without affecting their commitments to the Korean War?

More questions- Could the PRC use an invasion of the RoC as a negotiating tactic... "USA, we will pull out of Korea in exchange for you giving a free hand to our invasion underway in Taiwan". Would the USA sacrifice Taiwan just for Korea? How would this affect Vietnam later on?

The one unshakable reality is that non nuclear states do NOT threaten Nuclear States, especially when only one Country realistically has any weapons. The U.S. knew, with reasonable certainty the total possible Soviet inventory in 1950 was under 15 weapons (keeping in mind that the USSR had only detonated its first weapon a year earlier), in actual fact the Soviet had a total of five while the U.S. possessed 369. At the end of 1951 the U.S. assumed a Soviet stockpile of ~75, actual was 25 (Soviet construction time per weapon was more than double the U.S. early series rate), the U.S. had 1,000+ by the same time. The U.S. also had delivery systems, something that the Soviets lacked beyond a few one was Tu-4 (the vastly inferior reversed engineered version of the B-29).

Stalin was not going to trade Moscow for Taiwan. Truman didn't bluff worth a damn, and both Stalin and Mao knew it. Zero probability event.
 
Well there was a war between North and South Korea and Taiwan wasnt a very principal problem.If China would advanced on Taiwan,the helpers in Pacific,allies of USA,Americans would greatly use South Korea as an exploit power to invade the North.In final America would strike China on 2 sides,Vietnam and Korea.The bad thing is that America failed both Invasions and China acctualy helped Vietnam and North Korea as USSR did.No nukes can be implicated because all know what happened in Japan and more than that the radiation could even came in america killing and making ill thousands or maybe more because of a Nuclear War between 2 Overpowers
 
Well there was a war between North and South Korea and Taiwan wasnt a very principal problem.If China would advanced on Taiwan,the helpers in Pacific,allies of USA,Americans would greatly use South Korea as an exploit power to invade the North.In final America would strike China on 2 sides,Vietnam and Korea.The bad thing is that America failed both Invasions and China acctualy helped Vietnam and North Korea as USSR did.No nukes can be implicated because all know what happened in Japan and more than that the radiation could even came in america killing and making ill thousands or maybe more because of a Nuclear War between 2 Overpowers

I'm very confused by your answer :confused:
 
No no no. Had the Korean war not occured, the plan was for the PLA to sieze Taiwan as a final act of the Civil War. The US by then has given up on the hopeless KMT government.

There is no way that the 1 year old PRC is going to attack the UN forces in Korea and invade Taiwan simultaneously, it was one or the other.

Had they taken Taiwan, might we see a united Korea today?
 
No no no. Had the Korean war not occured, the plan was for the PLA to sieze Taiwan as a final act of the Civil War. The US by then has given up on the hopeless KMT government.

There is no way that the 1 year old PRC is going to attack the UN forces in Korea and invade Taiwan simultaneously, it was one or the other.

Why not?

I mean China willingly attacked a nuclear power, killing capturing it's soldiers. I think your overstating the PRC's "risk-adverseness" in the 1950s.

It's plausible that if Mao WANTED Taiwan in 1950, he'd go for it.
 
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