Mao Zedong Redirects Taiwan Invasion

In June 1950, the United States ordered the Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait, blocking a planned Chinese invasion of Taiwan and forcing Beijing to rethink how it would confront U.S. power in East Asia. China’s leader Mao Zedong then redirected the invasion force toward Korea and announced that China would enter the Korean War with troops that had originally been earmarked for Taiwan. By October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu River into North Korea and launched major offensives just as United Nations and South Korean troops neared the Chinese border. Their intervention drove UN forces back across the 38th parallel and saved North Korea from imminent defeat.

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