Taiwan Strait

But the drumbeat of gunfire begins anew just a few hours later and will not stop for another 44 days.

This is the opening act of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, a conflict that will become famous for the deployment of new weapons of war as the tiny ROC fights for its existence against the communist behemoth.

The origins of this conflict are found in the chaotic aftermath of the Second World War in Asia.

Following the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, the Nationalists retreated to the island of Taiwan in late 1949.

Led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Nationalists have been rebuilding their strength on the island for the past nine years, waiting for the right opportunity to reconquer mainland China and destroy the Communists.

This is Kendall Kull, author of the article Revisiting the Taiwan Strait Crisis, Strategic Lessons for Today, and is a recent graduate of Harvard College.

It's really important

to note the degree of seriousness with which both the communists and the nationalists treated the sense that the civil war was not over, which is that, of course, there was the specter of communist invasion of Taiwan in order to sort of have a decisive battle that would primarily end the civil war.

You know, I think when we looked at Ukraine, we've seen a lot of change right in this theater, the use of autonomous systems, drones.

And we're learning a lot, particularly for the Indo-Pacific theater, right, where you have a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait or in East China Sea, South China Sea.

Those are scenarios that could come at any point if there's a miscalculation or something that happens in the theater.

And so it's really important that we start talking about this today and we close the gaps on certain capabilities that we need for our readiness, also for deterrence, right? So we need to continue to advance modernization on our nuclear forces.

What do you think you would find when you came back? That's how other people think our brains work.

That's what the Chinese think when they see us over there in the Taiwanese Strait, sailing around with the flag and the mirrored sun.

You look mad.

You look insane.

Generally speaking, maritime militia fishing boats are more commonly seen in the South China Sea.

We are now seeing a similar pattern emerge to the east of the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwanese officials say China is rehearsing for a possible maritime blockade using all available assets, military, paramilitary and civilian.

This is part of Beijing's gray zone warfare efforts, actions that fall between peace and full-scale war, aiming to legitimize CCP claims over Taiwan.

And essentially the bat phone, being able to talk to each other in a moment of crisis.

This has been a feature of U.S.-China relations going back repeatedly through the 1990s, through the Taiwan Straits crisis, and then through the Bush and Obama administrations.

This was a big deal.

And now in Trump, too, it's sort of come back.