Wed, May 29, 2024 page2

• China’s might in Strait a global worry, Japan says

  CIVILIAN SHIPS: A British newspaper reported that China is acquiring ‘an armada of ferries’ to invade Taiwan, but experts said it would be a very difficult feat to pull off

  • By Lin Tsuei-yi and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter in Tokyo, with staff writer
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  The military balance in the Taiwan Strait tilting in favor of China is sparking global concern, Japanese media outlets quoted an early draft of the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s annual report as saying.

  The document obtained by Japanese-language media last week also says that a conflict similar to the Russian invasion of Ukraine could occur near Japan, a statement previous reports did not make.

  In the past few years, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been rapidly building its military superiority over Taiwan, although the latter made an effort to bolster its defenses after Russia invaded Ukraine, the draft says.

  

  Security staff monitor the main entrance to the Japanese Ministry of Defense in Tokyo on Sept. 17, 2021.

  Photo: AP

  China has been increasing its military activity around Taiwan with the aim of normalizing it and improving its combat capabilities, it says.

  Beijing’s strategic alliance with Moscow was “cause for severe concern” regarding security and defense for Japan, the draft says.

  The draft report’s publication coincided with Japan’s five major Japanese-language newspapers condemning the PLA’s drills around Taiwan.

  In other news, the UK-based Sunday Telegraph on Sunday reported that China is gathering “an armada of ferries” for an amphibious invasion of Taiwan, citing multiple security analysts.

  The PLA Navy lacks the landing ships to take over Taiwan, but civilian vessels are being used to make up for this deficiency, the analysts were quoted as saying.

  “Dozens of gigantic” roll-on, roll-off ferries” could transport “hundreds of armoured vehicles” and unload them at a beachhead, the newspaper said.

  “Amphibious landings under fire are among the most difficult of military manoeuvres,” Ray Powell, director of Standford University’s project SeaLight, a project focused on “gray zone” activities in the South China Sea, was quoted as saying.

  Civilian ferries “would normally be poor choices for such a mission” but could be used to transport large numbers of troops across the Strait after Taiwan’s coastal defense has been destroyed, or to overwhelm defending forces “with sheer mass,” Powell said.

  China’s navy is already the world’s largest and Beijing has focused on building a fleet of dual-use ships that can be used in peace and war, the Sunday Telegraph said.

  Ten years ago, Beijing issued technical guidelines for shipbuilders to make civilian ships that could be adapted for military purposes, the newspaper said.

  Citing the US Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute, the newspaper said that the PLA is believed to have integrated Chinese ferries, tankers and container ships into its command structure.

  Tom Shugart, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security think tank, was quoted as saying in 2022 that civilian vessels could enable the Chinese military to move 300,000 troops across the Strait in about 10 days.
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