But in recent years, Chinese leaders 鈥 including the current president, Xi Jinping 鈥 have talked of which would bring Taiwan and its population of 23 million under the control of Beijing. By force if necessary.
Now, the recent appearance of a at a beach in Guangdong province in the People鈥檚 Republic may be a significant movement towards that unwelcome potential outcome.
The filmed in March 2025 working together to form a relocatable bridge 鈥 the name means 鈥渨ater bridge鈥 鈥 enable the transfer of vehicles, supplies and people between ship and shore, over shallow beaches and potential obstacles on to firm ground. that there is no obvious commercial role for such large vessels, so the most likely purpose is for landing armed forces during amphibious operations.
All major navies maintain some form of amphibious capability. The UK鈥檚 , for example, operates the UK鈥檚 , which are due to be replaced by six modern . What is particularly significant, however, is that the Shuiqiao offers capabilities along similar lines to the built for the D-Day Normandy landings.
The specialised nature of these landing barges, with only one real purpose 鈥 to help land large numbers of military forces, stands in contrast with mainstream amphibious vessels. Bay class ships, for example, continue to be used for civilian evacuations, humanitarian aid, disaster relief and a wide range of military roles.
That is a crucial distinction as amphibious operations present huge logistical challenges. 850,000 troops, 485,000 tons of supplies and 153,000 vehicles to be landed safely over the first three weeks. Ports tend to be difficult to seize intact, as was demonstrated to great cost during the , so it is generally necessary to land armies over the invasion beaches.
The ability to install temporary harbours, which is what the Shuiqiao bridges appear to provide, offers a means of quickly landing large forces from bigger ships to shore. That also reduces the number of specialised landing ships required, by enabling the use of commercial vessels for ferrying troops to those makeshift ports.
Is an invasion of Taiwan imminent?
What is of concern is that such specialised landing barges are not normally constructed until shortly before they are intended to be used. The Mulberry harbours went into production only a year before the Normandy landings. This is both to ensure they are in good working order when required, but also as they tend to offer little additional value and yet come at a significant price. In this present case, the nearest comparable civilian and military vessels cost .
This does not mean that their appearance guarantees that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is imminent. At present there are reported to be three completed prototype landing barges ready for deployment and three under construction. This would offer one or two beach bridges, each an estimated 820 metres long.
That would be of minimal value in a major invasion. The single in Gaza, for example, was only able to land . While the Gaza effort was affected by bad weather, any Shuiqiao landing bridges would face much more dangerous wartime conditions. Three to six barges could also still plausibly be intended for disaster relief, even if does not seem a particularly cost-effective means of delivering aid.
Assuming that an invasion does not trigger a world war, it might still be unsuccessful. Despite years of preparation and near complete control of the sea and skies, the Normandy landings were incredibly perilous and at times looked at risk of defeat. Success came at great cost in lives, through great skill, and at times a little luck. More than 4,400 allied soldiers are believed to have died within the first 24 hours alone, with many more wounded.
Furthermore, getting forces ashore is only part of the challenge. Taiwan鈥檚 geography is not suited to and in similar historic cases that has led to significant additional casualties and delays.
The during the 1944 invasion of Italy, for example, registered tens of thousands of casualties as the allies struggled to break out of the beachhead. Likewise, at , repeated failures to move inland saw allied forces suffer hundreds of thousands of casualties only to eventually withdraw.
As a historian who is fond of China, I can only hope that these prototypes will remain just that and this will join the list of other forgotten moments in world history. If not, then the conflicts we have seen since the cold war and even those of the past few years may look minor in comparison to what could be unleashed as a result of an invasion of Taiwan.
, Senior Lecturer in Naval History,
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