The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won, Revised and Expanded Edition

Fear and Loathing in the Taiwan Strait

A-bombs can be used as you would use a bullet.

—President Dwight D. Eisenhower

If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China’s territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons.

—General Zhu Chenghu, Chinese Defence University

When Mao Zedong and his Communist Party took over China in 1949, the deposed president, Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan with almost one million of his troops and immediately began planning for a counterrevolution. In 1953, as part of his plans to retake China, Chiang massed almost 75,000 troops on two islands just 8 miles off the coast of mainland China—Matsu and Quemoy. Mao’s China quickly responded with a bombardment ...