China Military's Taiwan Invasion Force Conducts Amphibious Beach Assault Drills

A People's Liberation Army brigade stationed in southeast China conducted a day of intense live-fire exercises and amphibious beach landings, the country's state broadcaster announced this past week. The armored division of the PLA's 73rd Group Army, which is believed to be China's main invasion force in a presumed plan to attack Taiwan, expended several thousand rounds of ordnance during drills held on May 12, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday. Footage published online showed a number of Type 05 amphibious fighting vehicles being driven into the sea during the exercise, which is said to have lasted eight hours and involved a number of new recruits. The 73rd Group Army, which is stationed in Xiamen in Fujian province, is believed to have conducted the combat training off Dongshan County in the Taiwan Strait, according to satellite images circulated on Chinese social media sites. The army's training activities, especially frequent beach landing exercises, have led observers to conclude that it would spearhead an invasion attempt during a Taiwan Strait contingency. Around the same time as the amphibious assault drills, PLA forces with China's South Sea Fleet staged their own two-day drill in the South China Sea, where they dropped bombs and launched missiles at a floating target in the sea. In December 2020, tanks and infantry units of the 72nd Group Army, based in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, conducted an urban warfare exercise widely believed to be part of a mock invasion of Taiwan.