China Mobilizes Civilian Ferries For Taiwan Invasion Drills

China mobilises civilian ferries for Taiwan invasion drills

Nikkei

 

China has threatened to invade Taiwan for seven decades, yet its ability to execute the biggest amphibious invasion in human history has only recently reached the point where such a feat could be feasible.

One of the most-discussed missing pieces to the puzzle for planners in Beijing is amphibious lift capability — the ability to transport equipment and personnel across the Taiwan Strait and unload off of Taiwan’s rugged coast.

The April 23 commissioning of China’s first Yushen-class landing helicopter assault ship is a big step in that direction — the small-scale aircraft carrier can transport helicopters, hovercraft and armoured amphibious assault vehicles.

Another Yushen-class ship was launched in January and is currently undergoing sea trials, while new vessels are being constructed around the rate of one every six months. But the ongoing expansion of China’s amphibious lift capability is not limited solely to naval vessels.

Large ferries recruited from China’s civilian fleet were used in naval exercises held both last summer and in July, suggesting that Beijing could use non-military vessels to leapfrog its current amphibious transport bottleneck.

In a Jamestown Foundation report published last month, Conor Kennedy, an instructor at the China Maritime Studies Institute of the US Naval War College, used open-source research to highlight the movements last summer of a Chinese ferry, the Bang Chui Dao.

Kennedy’s research highlighted what may be the first attempt by China to convert a commercial ferry into an amphibious vessel for military purposes.

Ferries typically can only load and unload vehicles at ports, but the Bang Chui Dao had been retrofitted with a ramp that enables vehicles to roll on and off at sea — an ability that Chinese state television highlighted in multiple news reports on an amphibious exercise in southern China’s Guangdong province.

“A surge in PLA landing ship construction would be expected before serious preparations for a cross-Strait invasion,” Kennedy wrote, referring to China’s People’s Liberation Army.