Chinese “D-Day style” barges have been spotted practising what appear to be amphibious landings in the South China Sea.

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    11 days ago

    Good luck Taiwan! There won’t be any US support for you unfortunately

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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      11 days ago

      ✨that was one of the points of the international foreign influence campaign to disrupt our elections✨

    • petersr@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      If not, then wave buy buy to pretty much all modern computer chips for years to come. Devastating global supply chain disruptions.

      • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        When has China restricted countries from technology that wasn’t in retaliation to western restrictions on them?

        • Grabthar@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          Taiwan’s National Security Bureau says that without their supply chain of advanced machinery and parts as well as ultra-pure raw materials, the factories won’t be able to do much for long at current tech levels and will quickly fall behind the leading edge. And both the US and Taiwan have plans to scuttle the plants if they see the need anyway.

  • lennee@lemm.ee
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    11 days ago

    China should just accept taiwan sovereignty and strengthen economic and political ties with Europe. Doing nothing and winning has been working so well.

    • Drusas@fedia.io
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      11 days ago

      Taiwan was never unified with mainland China to begin with, anyway. They have no claim over it. Not that that stops the CCP from claiming everything in the Pacific.

        • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
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          10 days ago

          Exactly. If California voted to leace the US tomorrow then they would have every right to be free. Same for Northern Ireland, Scotland, Catalonia, and Südtirol.

      • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
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        10 days ago

        Eh, precedent is severely overrated. China doesn’t have any right to Taiwan because all people have a right to self determination. China invading Taiwan would be just as terrible as Spain forcing Catalonia to remain, or the US using violence to keep California from seceding.

  • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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    11 days ago

    I’m not NCD certified but those aren’t warships. The big one in the back has seven stacks?! Easy to defeat with even WWII munitions.

    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.”

    Mr Heath argued the barges are more likely to be used to deliver humanitarian supplies to disaster-struck regions with poor port infrastructure.

    So, either humanitarian or long-term occupation supplies. No one is going to put an invasion force on ships with fucking smokestacks. Could be prototypes rigged to existing boats though.

    • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      One can imagine that chinese leaders can hand wave away whatever number of casualties it has to withstand in order to get at least one or two of these docked and offloading. I think it would be silly to assume that china wouldn’t do something just because a bunch of it’s own people might die in the doing. It’s never stopped them before, why would it now?