Mao’s Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China’s Navy, by Toshi Yoshihara, Georgetown University Press, 2022, pp. 158

Mao’s Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China’s Navy delves into Mao’s initial efforts to build a naval force, tracing the development of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) between 1949 and 1950. It highlights how a group of individuals with no maritime experience managed to create an operational navy in just 18 months. Despite their lack of expertise, this nascent force undertook complex amphibious assaults, achieving significant victories in some cases while facing crushing defeats in others. Yoshihara, a distinguished scholar of the PLAN and Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments offers fresh perspectives through his extensive use of Chinese sources.