The People’s Liberation Army has unveiled the first of what are expected to be as many as five special barges with bridges capable of overcoming minefields during a potential future invasion of Taiwan.
“Anyone wondering what an invasion of Taiwan might look like now has a fresh visual clue,” wrote Naval News analyst H.I. Sutton about the new barge.
The first barge was photographed at a shipyard in Guangzhou, China, with PLA forces shown conducting exercises. The barge lays out a road-like structure above the water that produces a 2,500-foot causeway capable of handling military vehicles and troops.
The most distinctive feature of the first vessel, called Shuiqiao, is its last section — a 360-foot crane-like bridge extending from the bow that can cross water, mud, seawalls, mine and other beach obstacles.
Andrew S. Erickson, a professor of strategy at the Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute, said the barges have no international parallel or obvious commercial use. The barge appears to be “the missing piece in the puzzle for China to be able to attempt to deploy ferry-delivered, follow-on forces in support of an amphibious assault to the most advantageous locations along Taiwan’s coastline,” Mr. Erickson said.
The barge would allow the PLA to use commercial ships for an invasion without having to first take control of a Taiwanese port as a landing spot.
“A single ship can extend over key obstacles and other hazards,” he said. “Connecting multiple ships in end-to-end configuration, preliminary efforts at which have now been observed, could offer a lengthy bridge indeed.”
Images of the barge were first posted on Chinese social media earlier this month and reposted on X.
The barges further undermine the claims of some U.S. military officials who say China’s military is unable to conduct the difficult task of launching an amphibious invasion of Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the PLA to be ready militarily to take Taiwan by force by 2027.
Then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said in September 2023 that a Chinese military assault against Taiwan “is a very, very high bar” and “the most complex of all operations to do.”
“Frankly, the Chinese military capability is probably not there right this second to do that,” he said.
Pentagon intelligence analysts also for many years asserted that China would be unable to conduct an invasion across the 100-mile wide Taiwan Strait, owing to a lack of amphibious lift ships and other needed equipment. Some private China analysts in the past also ridiculed a PLA invasion as likely ending as a “million-man swim.”
But in recent years, new intelligence has found that the Chinese navy is rapidly building a significant invasion capability. China built and commissioned three large amphibious landing ships called Type 075 ships in 16 months from 2021. A fourth is under construction and eight of the ships are planned — a key indicator of a potential invasion force.
The Type 075 is a helicopter carrier that will ferry large numbers of Marines, armored vehicles and air-cushioned troop transports.
The PLA also is building another class of helicopter landing assault ship called the Type 076. The first warship is already under construction, according to the Pentagon.
The Indo-Pacific Command also stated in a legal report that the PLA plans to use commercial roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ships in amphibious invasion rehearsals.
Normally, direct insertion of troops into conflict is “a belligerent act normally reserved for warships,” the report said.
“By demonstrating intent to use commercial ROROs during an amphibious invasion, the PLA is eroding the principle of distinction under the law of armed conflict and obscuring crucial lines between warships and non-warships, civilians and combatants, and civilian objects and military objectives,” the report said, adding that the PLA’s use of commercial ships should be condemned.
