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submitted 5 days ago by drmoose@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

A classified US military intelligence report seen by the ABC says China is rapidly building up the country's commercial ferry fleet to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan.

The report dates from earlier this year and was prepared by members of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for the Pentagon.

The US intelligence says the large ocean-going vessels have been modified to carry tanks and partake in amphibious operations.

China is building more than 70 of the large vessels by the end of 2026.

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[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 76 points 5 days ago

Seems like it's becoming more and more clear that the real reason China support ruzis is to weaken the resistance to their attack on Taiwan.

[-] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 56 points 5 days ago

And set up a precedent that in the modern world you can still just walk into a place with an army and call it yours. Or, well, that was the plan for "Kyiv in 3 days"

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 35 points 5 days ago

Exactly, the borders were very much set for decades now (with few exceptions). Then, ruzis took Crimea and what do we have here - anexation is back on the menu.

China is also dealing with record youth unemployment of almost 20% - you know what gets people quickly employed? A bit of good ol' war

[-] axexrx@lemmy.world 18 points 4 days ago

I think its a win for them no matter how things play out- either Russia's strategy works, and precedence gets set, and china is free to threaten nukes to anyone 'butting in' to their war to capture Taiwan, Russia fails, overextends, and becomes a vassal state to China, or the war metasticizes in to a world war, and they snap up whatever they want in Asia while the west's is occupied with other fronts (like Europe and Midle east)

[-] nuko147@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Professor Hu Bo conceded the satellite intelligence could be connected to Taiwan.

"Every capability can be connected to a Taiwan scenario, but China can be very patient," he said.

"We can wait many years for a peaceful solution. I think the US has exaggerated China's intentions.

"I think the main reason China is strengthening its navy is very simple. It's because of the US military threat."

[-] _edge@discuss.tchncs.de 48 points 4 days ago

Fuck. Because what we need right now is another war.

[-] AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 13 points 4 days ago

Don't worry, Trump will just roll over and let it happen.

[-] whereyaaat@lemmings.world 1 points 3 days ago

Would be hilarious if we went to war and then he died.

[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 days ago

I have no doubt that China has been planning an invasion for a long long time. It's what countries do; they make contingency plans after contingency plans after contingency plans. You're not actually doing your job as a country if you don't plan for every thing just in case.

It's the same reason the U.S. has a theoretical plan to invade Canada, because of course it does.

But that being said, am I inclined to believe anything that comes out of the American intelligence apparatus at the present. Mainly because I'm not an idiot and everything that that particular country says or does at the moment is to serve the whims of an orange toddler.

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

This is a bit more than a contingency plan no? No other country does this that isnt in active war like russia-ukraine or the Koreas. Does India have 100 ships parked at Sri Lanka? Japan at Russia or same Taiwan?

[-] Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com 4 points 3 days ago

The US has military bases and ships parked in Taiwan, South Korea, Phillipines and Japan, and regularly patrols ships in the Taiwan strait. Surely this is only for defensive purposes? I wonder, why would China have amphibian ships given these circumstances? Would you find it weird for, say, the US to have amphibian training exercises if Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Guatemala had Russian troops stationed and there were Russian military ships in the strait between Cuba and Florida?

[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

Shocked pikachu

They've been preparing for decades and they literally have now a mobile bridge to make an instant port.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/25/china/china-landing-barges-cable-cutter-taiwan-intl-hnk/index.html

They've also been simulating US carrier movement with rails in the desert to be able to shoot it down with missiles.

Made tons of transport ships for military equipment.

It looks like they're gearing up to take Taiwan so fast that nobody can respond in time.

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 23 points 4 days ago

lmao another “Taiwan invasion” headline. How many more decades of this are we gonna get before we realize this is just propaganda?

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 32 points 4 days ago

Totally, they're building up military and capabilities just for shits and giggles. Also Xi literally saying that they will take Taiwan no ifs or buts about it multiple times but somehow "it's propaganda" lmao

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/no-one-can-separate-taiwan-from-china-xi/3438987

“We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same family. No one can ever sever the bond of kinship between us,” Xi said in his 2025 New Year message, Xinhua News Agency reported.

"No one can block the historical momentum of the reunification of the motherland," he added.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58854081

"The historical task of the complete reunification of the motherland must be fulfilled, and will definitely be fulfilled"

[-] krebssteven@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

There IS a propagandistic dimension to this, even as it doesn’t dispel the threat of invasion. The PRC tries to exploit their military development spending to project an image of strength but not to solely bully Taiwan or the Tiger states but towards its own population. It’s a display of strength to further the image of chinese hegemony. Maintaining this image is just as important for inner political stability.

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

China building an army: totally proof that they are going to invade a “country”

Any other country on earth building an army: just self defence!

LMAO

I hope you’re getting paid for this shit at least…

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 31 points 4 days ago

You know that everyone can check your profile and public post history right? all you do is shill for China with your 1 week old troll account. Go rake a gulag or smt tankie troll.

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

You know you got out-debated when you gotta resort to this “I saw your profile” nonsense. Maybe sit this one out next time little fella. You are out of your depths here.

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 24 points 4 days ago

Is the debate in the room with us?

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 12 points 4 days ago

China is expanding offensive capabilities, specifically geared towards amphibious invasion. They also publicly state that they will "unify" with Taiwan.

Somehow I'm not as worried that Belgium is going to get any funny ideas when they buy a couple tanks. Gosh I wonder what the difference is...

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[-] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 2 points 3 days ago

If Xi was a girl dropping hints at me, I would get them -and I never do !

[-] gigachad@piefed.social 18 points 4 days ago
[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 days ago

Is that the cool side of Lemmy? I’m new to this Lemmy thing and I am surrounded by normie liberals. Coulda just stayed on Reddit for that lol.

[-] gigachad@piefed.social 19 points 4 days ago

Yes, please head over to lemmygrad.ml. You will feel much more welcome there! Have a good time and goodbye.

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago
[-] nekbardrun@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

There is even a better side (no joke) called hexbear.net

The sad part is that it is not federated with most instances.

But still a good place to go and learn.

[-] Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com 3 points 3 days ago

You should also check out hexbear, it's the most trans inclusive place on Lemmy and it's defederated from .world so you don't get the libs constantly on your feed

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[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 16 points 4 days ago

About as many decades as Iran has been two weeks away from a nuke.

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 8 points 4 days ago

Nooooo! Western propaganda isnt real! Only non-white countries have that! We are free thinkers here!

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

China’s Possible Invasion of Taiwan – Part I: 2019, 2020, 2021, or 2023

China’s Possible Invasion of Taiwan – Part II: 2025, 2030s, 2049, or 2050

We are literally never going to hear the end of this.

Edit: To all the losers and haters downvoting me, I'm linking to your boys at GlobalTaiwan.org. They've been screaming about China's plot to conquer Taiwan for the last decade. You should love this shit. Why do these citations make you so sad and angry?

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 12 points 4 days ago

Foreseeing military action based on anniversary dates could be too predictable, so there is an equal chance that China will avoid those years to maintain an element of surprise.

Bro I am fucking dying reading this 🤣🤣

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 days ago

They been crying about this “very real plan” for decades now. It’s wild 😆

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

Could it be because it takes decades to prepare something like this?

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The invasion of Grenada took twelve days, from the coup to US intervention.

The invasion of Panama took five days between Panama declaring war and US having boots on the ground.

The invasion of Afghanistan began fifteen days after 9/11.

Maybe Americans really do think in hours while Chinese folks think in centuries. But even by that standard, a 2050 invasion would be a bit slow.

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

I don't think these are comparable. Taiwan is a modern country with military alliance with the US, its own modern military and very strong economic ties to the rest of the world. It's much harder to annex. In fact if China could take Taiwan they'd show that they could take almost any other country in the world. None of your examples are even remotely close.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

In fact if China could take Taiwan they’d show that they could take almost any other country in the world.

If they could repatriate an island with a near-identical language and a large overlapping population and economy that's within sight of their coastline then they could... what? Conquer Brazil or Finland or Saudi Arabia by main force?

It simply doesn't that that long to assemble an invasion force against a country squarely in your sphere of influence. Panama and Taiwan are very neat parallels, in fact. One might also point to Cuba, which the US has been occupying via Guantanamo Bay for nearly a century.

None of your examples are even remotely close.

China's not lead by a C-list TV personality sock puppet for extractive industry, so that's no surprise.

But that's half the joke. There's no real plan to do a ground invasion into Taipei. The Beijing government's plan to repatriate Taiwan is almost entirely economic. It follows the same strategy they successfully employed in Hong Kong and are replicating in Singapore and across the rest of the Pacific Rim.

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yes they could take anyone else and install a puppet ruler. Tibet much?

I don't think China can take Taiwan through economic means. Taiwan is just too different from China and I say that as someone whos visited both several times (Taiwan is amazing btw). Despite shared language the cultures and people's have very different identities and most importantly different goals, education profiles and alliances. Taiwan is as far from China as Ukraine is from Russia if not more.

The reason why China is supporting Russia because how similar Ukraine-Russia relationship is to their Taiwan problem. If you check out Chinese media you can see the experiments China is running and seeing what sticks and "zelenskyy is a war mongerer" is so successful that even remote peasants are full on it. Much more effective than any economic or cultural propaganda. I have no doubt China would love to use something like that for Taiwan and you need some form of physical war to get that.

Either way I certainly hope I'm wrong and you're right. I live almost full time in south east asia now and war with Taiwan would have devastating effects on the region. I'd take economic influence over that any time especially because SEA keeps showing up being able to resist Chinese attacks again and again despite taking China's money every time.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Tibet much?

A region that's been part of China for longer than Delaware has been a part of the United States.

Hell, the revolt against the Llama started in Tibet in 1949, when the Kashag dictatorship attempted a pogrom against all ethnic Chinese locals.

Tibet might have even more autonomy than it does now (and it's got more internal freedom from Beijing than any American Commonwealth could ask from DC), if the old guard hadn't tried to do an ethnic purge.

I don’t think China can take Taiwan through economic means

I guess we'll see what happens following the next Wall Street crash. But when the AI bubble pops, that's going to be hell on Taiwan's most lucrative export.

The reason why China is supporting Russia because how similar Ukraine-Russia relationship is to their Taiwan problem.

You've pickled yourself with right wing propaganda. If Taiwan has any kind of peer relationship, it would be between the US and Cuba. Except China isn't trying to suffocate Taiwan with an embargo.

But China and Taiwan haven't been in a low grade shooting war for over a decade. Neither does Taiwan have a NATO equivalent that its threatening to join. And Taiwan isn't in the process of arresting and deporting Chinese nationals in bulk (not that the more reactionary Taiwanese natives wouldn't like to try).

you need some form of physical war to get that

You don't need a physical war for Chinese loyalists to become the wealthiest residents of the island, as was the case in Hong Kong and is increasingly the case in Singapore.

That is the ultimate path to unification. China's massive economic position will be used to buy out whatever remains of Taiwan's Cold Warrior class.

The gapping hole in the Capitalist's armor is the fact that everything is for sale, including sovereignty.

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 days ago

These headlines are not predictions for the future, they have been reporting on an “imminent invasion” for decades.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

I recall similar mockery when the Biden admin came out and said a Russian invasion of Ukraine was imminent. It’s far fetched alarmism, until it isn’t

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago

This comparison would make sense if Biden was screaming about Russia invading Ukraine for decades first…

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

I recall similar mockery when Trump came out and said a Mexican invasion of Texas was imminent.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I might believe your hypothetical if Mexico was investing heavily in beach landing craft the same way the PLN is…

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

The island-hopping strategy that paved America's way to Tokyo isn't forgotten. China needs to defend some 7,200 islands off its coastline in the event the US decides to launch a first-strike. That means being able to retake territory they lose, which means needing landing craft to get them there.

For some reason, American China-Watchers only recognize one island as possible contested territory when you've got whole archipelagos that rival militaries would compete to secure. That's before you get to Chongming Island or Hainan Island, both pivotal to Chinese domestic security.

[-] Aqarius@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I mean, that's correct, but then you're agreeing this is, at this point, far fetched alarmism.

The broken clock is correct twice a day, but it's still useless as a timepiece.

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[-] jaykrown@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

They would be extremely dumb to try to invade Taiwan.

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this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
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