Sighting of Shuqiao ships provides insight into China’s integration of its military, paramilitary and civilian operations – and its plans for a potential invasion

The short video is shot from a public beach in China’s Guangdong province, the unidentified filmer standing quietly by some fishing boats and a few tourists out for a walk.

Just to their right, a line of strange looking ships loom in the mist. The enormous ships are unmoving, raised above the waves by thick pylons. Drop-down bridges connect them to each other, the front one extending down to the sand.

The original video reportedly disappeared from WeChat shortly after it was uploaded, but copies circulated widely among watchers of China-Taiwan hostilities. The 19-second clip was their first clear look at what many believe are China’s newest tool for its Taiwan invasion plans.

The barge-like Shuqiao ships were first seen during the construction phase in January, and reported by Naval News. The Zhanjiang beach test showed how together they can create a loading dock from almost a kilometre out to sea – exactly what China needs to overcome one of the key challenges of any land invasion of Taiwan.

  • j4k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
    215·
    3 days ago

    US intelligence has said Xi has ordered the PLA to be capable of invasion by 2027, although military experts have noted that a number of variables – including ongoing corruption issues in the PLA and the unpredictability of US support for Taiwan under Trump – could push that in either direction.

    Regardless, the PLA is now undergoing one of the biggest military buildups since the second world war. Xi has overhauled the command structure, boosted missile and nuclear stocks, and strengthened paramilitary arms including the coastguard and the paramilitary fleet of fishing boats known as the maritime militia. The different groups are cooperating more than ever on joint operations.

    Satellite images show the barges were escorted by at least two civilian ships from a nearby civilian dock, and that several other boats – including some marked as fishing vessels on their tracking ID – were sailing laps behind them, appearing to practise running interference.

    At least three more barges are under construction or in early testing. The barge design suggests they have been built to work with the roll-on, roll-off ferries that China has been repurposing or building to bring tanks and another heavy armoured vehicles across the Taiwan Strait.

    Intel announced they are relying on TSMC even more heavily and without letup in a recent investors call. This is WW3 building up. We have an atrocious auto industry that is incapable of integrated engineering, Boeing is a shitfest, and Intel that makes iterative downgrade products that are several generations behind its own products and nowhere near AMD.

    When China invades Taiwan, North Korea will invade the South at the same time. That takes out all leading edge silicon hardware instantly. We’ll have tanks that go dead when they stop and play an ad, planes that drop doors instead of munitions, and antique new computers.