Could Civilian Deck Cargo Vessels Carry China's Army to Taiwan?

China's civil-military fusion system is well known in tech and policy circles, and extends throughout its maritime industry as well. World-leading commercial shipbuilder CSSC builds the PLA Navy's warships; shipowning giant China COSCO conducts underway replenishment drills; and China's "maritime militia" fishing fleet conducts government operations in the Spratly Islands. Civilian vessels are also closely integrated into China's amphibious assault planning, and a new collection of satellite imaging from Reuters, BlackSky and PlanetLabs shows that the extent may be greater than understood by the public.

In a new report out Thursday, Reuters used high-resolution, high-frequency satellite imaging to review PLA amphibious drills near Jiesheng. In addition to ordinary activity, the imaging (and AIS data) revealed that a dozen commercial cargo vessels diverted from their ordinary operating areas, joined the exercise and loitered off the beach. At least some were bow-ramp deck cargo vessels, like the commercial vessel Huayzhixing, which had about 20 vehicles on deck and was offloading them onto the beach. It is believed to be the first published instance of a commercial bow-ramp workboat conducting a beach landing for the PLA.

The PLA Navy has limited amphibious tonnage of its own, but Western planners have long speculated that commercial vessels might bridge the gap if China launched a Taiwan Strait operation. Shallow-draft deck cargo boats like Huayzhixing are a ubiquitous sight on China's coastlines and waterways; they have been seen moving PLA ro/ro cargo before, but only to and from fixed piers, not in the surf zone. These simple vessels are inexpensive and built on short timeframes at small shipyards, and if integrated into Chinese planning, they could provide military transport capacity at scale, noted analyst Conor M. Kennedy in a previous research note for CMSI - though it is unclear if these unarmed working vessels would be able to deliver in combat.

The imaging also captured the operations of the PLA's temporary floating causeway system, China's functional equivalent of the "Trident Pier" used by the U.S. Army/U.S. Navy Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS) system. A multi-image sequence showed that Chinese forces can maneuver their pier pontoons into position, interconnect and then fully demobilize the pier system in about 3.5 hours or less - a small fraction of the time required for the American version of this capability.