China is preparing an armada of ferries and civilian vessels to invade Taiwan. This is happening against the backdrop of Beijing's intensifying pressure campaign on the island nation, The Telegraph writes, UNN reports .
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Experts note that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) does indeed have a shortage of military landing ships needed to carry out a large-scale naval invasion. However, they can be replaced by civilian vessels, including dozens of giant ferries, each of which can carry hundreds of armored vehicles.
Ray Powell, director of the SeaLight project, which studies the situation in the gray zone of the South China Sea, notes that a naval landing under enemy fire is one of the most difficult types of military operations.
According to him, civilian ferries “would normally be a poor choice for such a mission,” but they could be used to transport troops across the Taiwan Strait en masse after Taiwan's coastal defenses are destroyed, or to break through the island's defenses simply by “a large mass” of paratroopers.
According to The Telegraph, Taiwan's armed forces are much smaller than the PLA's, but they have an additional advantage in the difficult mountainous terrain of the Taiwanese coast and the treacherous 110-mile-long Taiwan Strait that separates the island from mainland China.
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The Chinese navy already has the world's largest surface fleet and has built dozens of dual-purpose vessels capable of operating in peacetime and in war. Ten years ago, Beijing issued technical "guidelines" to shipbuilders, according to which new civilian vessels must be suitable for military use.