Surprise, Signaling, and Operational Tradeoffs

Toshi Yoshihara, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and author of Mao's Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China's Navy, joins the show to discuss how the PLA took Beijing in 1949 by subversion, and how they may yet seize Taiwan.      

▪️

Times

    •      01:53 Introduction

    •      03:24 Peaceful liberation

    •      07:19 Planning and preparation         

    •      10:36 Isolation

    •      17:30 A tradition of manipulation        

    •      23:51 True believers           

    •      28:23 Helpless    

    •      34:55 Political warfare          

    •      41:53 Surprise

    •      47:32 Holy Grail

    •      50:51 Fault lines

    •      57:44 What to read?

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack