A three-phase piracy model needs evidence and communications caveats

Edward R. Lucas divides British policy into three phases: an early period of limited action, an activist unilateral phase, and eventual reliance on Chinese government forces. The first phase may look quieter in the record than it was in practice. Interwar communications and reporting were far less systematic than modern observers expect, so some local gunfire and ammunition expenditure may have produced little formal documentation. The later activist campaign applied increasingly visible force against pirate bases and reduced the profitability of piracy. Because pirate leaders were often also local power brokers, that pressure could encourage them to join the Nationalist political order and seek a different income stream. The evidence caveat keeps the periodization from being mistaken for a complete operational record.