The Shuiqiao barges have long road bridges measuring up to 120m extending from their bows. Photo / X.com / Defence_IDA
The Shuiqiao barges have long road bridges measuring up to 120m extending from their bows. Photo / X.com / Defence_IDA
Chinese barges practising amphibious landings in the South China Sea could be critical for a Taiwan invasion.
The Shuiqiao barges, with retractable piers, are designed to rapidly unload heavy equipment on enemy shores.
Analysts warn the barges signal a threat to Taiwan, despite potential vulnerabilities in battle conditions.
Chinese “D-Day style” barges have been spotted practising what appear to be amphibious landings in the South China Sea.
Footage shows the Chinese navy exercising the huge special landing barges, which defence analysts warn could prove critical in the event of a full-scale invasion of Taiwan.
The Shuiqiaobarges, which seemingly draw inspiration from the Mulberry harbours built for the Normandy landings in 1944, have long road bridges measuring up to 120m extending from their bows.
The bridges act as a floating, retractable pier that could be used to rapidly unload tanks, fighting vehicles, heavy equipment or troops from ships on to enemy shores.
They may also allow Beijing’s forces to bypass beach defences or to reach beaches previously considered unsuitable for amphibious landings.
China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has piled military pressure on the self-governing island in recent years, deploying warships and fighter jets to simulate a future blockade and an invasion.
Open-source analysts had previously spotted three to five of the special-purpose barges being built in Guangzhou Shipyard in southern China.
According to Naval News, each barge took just a few months to complete, although they have been in development since 2022.
The footage – which first emerged on Chinese social media platforms before it was deleted – was taken close to China’s naval headquarters in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, 600 miles south of Taiwan.
‘Tailor-made for an amphibious assault’
The barges appear “tailor-made for an amphibious assault”, according to HI Sutton, a naval analyst who first reported on the barges in January, arguing they could be an “early warning sign” of a potential invasion of Taiwan.
“It is possible that these ships can be explained away as having a civilian role. But the construction of so many, much larger than similar civilian vessels seen before, makes this implausible,” he wrote for Naval News.
Emma Salisbury, a sea power research fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, believes the barges could be the missing piece of the puzzle for a possible invasion of Taiwan.
Open-source analysts had previously spotted three to five of the barges being built in Guangzhou Shipyard in southern China. Photo / Getty Images
She told the Telegraph: “A core problem for the PRC [China] in invading Taiwan is getting the necessary heavy equipment over the [Taiwan] Strait – and the solution to that problem is what we are seeing with these barges.”
“While landing forces on contested shores is always going to be difficult, these barges look to be ideal for moving tanks, armoured vehicles and the like quickly and safely on to shore.”
The fact Beijing has permitted details of these barges to become public signals the threat China poses in the region, she said.
The barges provide broadly the same function as the US military’s Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system (JLOTS), which it used in a failed attempt to deliver aid to Gaza last year.
The floating, interlocking humanitarian pier was only operational for 20 days, owing to weather, technical and security problems.
China’s version could also be vulnerable to high winds and seas and – in the case of an invasion of Taiwan – an easy target to destroy, according to Timothy R. Heath, a senior international defence researcher at RAND.
“The slow moving barges are easily targeted so they are unlikely to survive in the middle of a battle on the beaches,” he told the Telegraph.
He added: “The PLA has many better suited military-grade amphibious assault ships that could carry out similar tasks of unloading armoured vehicles.”
Heath argued the barges are more likely to be used to deliver humanitarian supplies to disaster-struck regions with poor port infrastructure.
Yet alarm bells should still be ringing in Taipei and Washington, warned Tom Shugart, a defence analyst and former submariner.
The new footage, he argued on X, does not suggest an attack is imminent, but there should be fears “for when they’ve fully tested these and perhaps built many more”.
It comes amid growing concerns over China’s rapidly growing naval fleet as part of its race to become a global maritime power.
A new report suggests China has built the equivalent of the entire Royal Navy in just a few years, overtaking the US Navy in terms of hull count and nearing its fleet tonnage.
Between 2019 and 2023, four shipyards in the country – Dalian, Guangzhou, Jiangnan and Hudong-Zhonghua – produced at least 39 warships, which is more than the Royal Navy’s battle force fleet, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
