| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Air and aerospace power has been fundamental for defending China's "near
seas"-encompassing the Bohai Gulf, the Yellow Sea, and the East and South
China Seas-since the founding of the People's Republic.1
While air and naval
operations did not play a significant role in the Chinese Civil War, which was
won by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the victorious Communist forces
were threatened immediately by hostile air and naval forces from the maritime
sphere. In 1949 the regime was ill equipped to defend its eleven thousand miles
of coastline and more than six thousand islands against attacks and harassment
from Nationalist Chinese air and naval forces occupying the large islands of Taiwan and Hainan, as well as
several smaller islands, let alone protect the People's
Republic of China (PRC) against the aircraft carriers of
the powerful U.S. Seventh Fleet. Even before the People's Republic was officially declared in October 1949,
communist leaders immediately recognized the need
for strong naval and air forces; the PLA's commander,
General Zhu De, stated in April 1949 that China "must
build its own air forces and navy in order to boost
national defense."2
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