Soon after mainland China fell under the communist regime in 1949, Mao Tsetung ordered his top generals to prepare to invade Taiwan in what he believed would be the ultimate military campaign to unify China. In June 1950, Mao told the Third Plenary session of the 7th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party that the primary task for the new communist regime was to liberate Taiwan and Tibet.

But the Korean War broke out just days after the plenary session, which forced China to join North Korea and the Soviet Union to fight the United Nations coalition army under command of the United States. It was the first time China fought the United States in a battlefield. Since 1949, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has engaged in some historical military campaigns. Its engagement in the Korea War from 1950 to 1953, and the military campaigns against India and Vietnam, which were the major campaigns, has taught Beijing lessons. These lessons are fully explored in this book on Chinese fighting capabilities. Historians still ask the question: what would have happened to Taiwan had the Korean War not broken out? The Chinese army did not invade Taiwan, though it claimed Tibet. In the chapter on "The last campaign to unify China," author He Di explained Mao's unrealized goal to seize Taiwan, which resulted in the emergence of what he called "the Taiwan problem" lasting until today. The US under President Harry Truman intervened to stop China's threat against Taiwan. After the Korean War broke out, Truman ordered the military forces to the Korean peninsula and the Seventh Fleet to enter the Taiwan Strait "to neutralize the region until the end of the Korean War," the author said.

Truman made it clear that "the determination of the future status of Formosa must wait the restoration of security in the Pacific, a peace settlement with Japan, or consideration by the United Nations."

"The eruption of the Korean War led to the emergence of the Taiwan problem," said He Di.

The PLA's threats against Taiwan resurfaced again in 1954-55, in 1955 and most recently in 1995-96.

It also engaged in a border war with India in 1962. What did China learn from the Korean War? Author Yu Bin said in the chapter entitled "What China learned from its 'forgotten war' in Korea" that the most important lesson is to avoid or preempt such a war in the future.

"Although it fought the war to a stalemate with the most powerful military (the US) in the world, Beijing paid a tremendous price-economically, diplomatically and strategically - including the sowing of seeds of its discontent with Moscow," said Yu Bin.

In February 1979, China launched a large-scale invasion of the northern provinces of Vietnam and was threatening the capital of Hanoi in what had become a famous episode in the PLA history. Deng Xiaoping wanted to "teach Vietnam a lesson" because of Hanoi's policies toward Cambodia and its emergence as a regional power in Southeast Asia following the defeat of the United States in South Vietnam. While views have differed about which country inflicted the "lesson," Western military analysts have long believed that China suffered heavy losses in fighting a former ally.

"While it is generally conceded that Vietnam taught China a military lesson in 1979, it is no less true that China taught Vietnam a political lesson," said Henry J. Kenny, who analyzed the war, taking into account the perceptions of the Vietnamese on their conflict with their giant neighbor. Vietnamese officials believed that China would use force when necessary to attain important political objectives - when it is sure it will not be defeated and when the situation is ripe. Kenny states that the Vietnamese were divided on the question of how long the PLA had prepared for the invasion, but they agreed that Vietnam was successful in resisting the invasion because of the PLA's limited targets. Finally, Kenny said the Vietnamese preferred not to rely on superpower intervention, but rather carried out the war by themselves.

Readers certainly can learn many lessons in this book, which examines China's modern war capabilities.