Aerial view of Woody Island, disputed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam
“Anyone wondering what an invasion of Taiwan will look like now has a new visual clue.” Ramps of at least three Chinese boats detected will be similar to the “Mulberry ports” used in the Normandy landings.
China has unveiled a new fleet of amphibious assault ships, equipped with ramps capable of accommodating heavy vehicles and troops, fueling speculation about a potential invasion of Taiwan.
Images of these ships, including a roll-on/roll-off commercial ferry attached to a barge with an extendable ramp, have recently emerged on Chinese social media. Analysts believe that these vessels are a strategic move by Beijing, which has long used civilian ships for military purposes.
“Visual clue” to an invasion of Taiwan
Satellite images first detected these specialized barges at the Guangzhou shipyard. At least three have been confirmed, says independent naval analyst HI Sutton in , but other experts suggest that six may have been built.
China is building at least 6 barges that can serve as mobile piers designed to give the PLA the capacity to conduct an amphibious assault on Taiwan. The barges are similar to the Mulberry harbors constructed for the Normandy invasion.
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“Anyone wondering what an invasion of Taiwan will look like now has a new visual clue,” warns Sutton.
The barges have a unique design, with self-deploying ramps that extend over 120 meters, allowing landings on coastal roads or in rocky terrain beyond beaches. Stability is reinforced by removable pillars that anchor the ramps to the seabed, ensuring functionality in adverse weather.
This innovation allows barges to integrate with the vast fleet of ferries civilians in China, facilitating the rapid transport of military equipment, including heavy tanks, to coastal areas. will be similar to the “Mulberry ports” used during the Allied landings in Normandy in World War IIexperts say.
A Taiwan’s rugged geography limits landing sites amphibian viable to some beaches, making them easier to defend. However, the new barges could bypass these defenses by using smaller, less fortified fishing ports to deploy troops, allowing China to develop a mobile port in locations less vulnerable to Taiwan’s defenses.
“If these barges have road bridge systems that can cross the beaches onto firmer land, that creates an interesting new problem,” Eric Gomez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, told the British newspaper: “the areas that the Taiwanese military should defend suddenly become much more numerous. Landing craft would be vulnerable to anti-ship shells and could end up being “easy targets”, he concludes.
Emma Salisbury, sea power researcher at the UK Geostrategy Council, points out in Naval News that “any invasion of Taiwan from the mainland would need large numbers of ships to quickly transport personnel and equipment across the Strait, in particular land assets such as armored vehicles”
“In preparation for an invasion, or at least to give China leverage, I would expect to see an increase in the construction of ships that could carry out this type of transport,” he says.
Analysis of GEOINT on 08 January 2025 shows new possible amphibious operations support vessels at the Guangzhou shipyard in China.
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It is worth remembering that the President of China, Xi Jinping, reaffirmed this in his New Year message broadcast on state television. that the “reunification” was inevitable.
Bloomberg, which warns that , adds the very delicate context in that Asian region, where China recently simulated a “war scenario” that left Taiwan “totally isolated from the outside world”.
China and Taiwan are separated since 1949when China became communist after a civil war. THE China has sought to exclude Taiwan international forums, considering the democratic island as one of its provinces and did not exclude the military option of reuniting the island with the continent.
In June, China moved forward with death penalty for Taiwanese independentists. In May, the superpower said it was resolutely against any form of independence for Taiwan.” The United States will accelerate the sale of weapons to the island.
