CIMSEC - China Is Rehearsing More Than Amphibious Landings
by Jason Wang, Marvin Bernardo, Pei-Jhen Wu, Andrew Ericksson
For years, the public debate over a possible Chinese Communist invasion of Taiwan has focused on a single question: Does the People’s Liberation Army have sufficient amphibious lift to move an invasion force across the Taiwan Strait? That question remains important. However, recent Chinese exercises suggest that the People’s Liberation Army is not simply trying to solve the problem of getting forces onto a Taiwanese beach. It is rehearsing how to move, sustain, and conceal a large amphibious campaign across multiple locations.
In August 2025, the People’s Liberation Army conducted a large-scale amphibious capstone exercise along China’s southeastern coastline. Commercial satellite imagery and Automatic Identification System data indicates the exercise consolidated several previously separate training exercises into a more coherent campaign simulation. The operation included synchronized amphibious activity across multiple geographic locations, direct-to-shore landing by civilian landing craft tank vessels, use of a floating causeway, offshore deployment of amphibious fighting vehicles from roll-on/roll-off ferries, port offloading, and operations around aquaculture structures and beach obstacles.
The most important lesson is not that China has solved the Taiwan invasion problem. It has not… yet. Amphibious operations remain among the most difficult military operations to conduct, and the 2025 exercise still occurred under favorable sea and weather conditions. The People’s Liberation Army is making visible progress in rehearsing the operational mechanics of a Taiwan-relevant amphibious campaign. Observers should therefore pay less attention to whether any single exercise proves invasion readiness and more attention to what each exercise reveals about evolving Chinese assumptions, logistics concepts, geographic options, and campaign design.