This Week in China's History: The Battle of Penghu

July 10-16, 1683

Listen to the audio narration of this column above.

It’s a nightmare for strategists and leaders on both sides.

In the Taiwan Straits two armed and hostile fleets approach one another, each with more than 200 vessels. One side, approaching from the Chinese mainland, aims to integrate Taiwan into its political system, part of a program of expanding influence and power that has attracted the attention of powers across the world. The other seeks to preserve a small independent Chinese state — branded as rebels and descended from China’s former rulers — that has proven surprisingly resilient, even as the odds appear stacked against it. 

The scenario seems all too plausible. Today, flyovers, military exercises, and weapons tests make headlines and fuel speculation about the potential for a mainland invasion of Taiwan, but the ships described here are plying not 21st-century waters, but 17th.