China’s sweeping summer exercises along its southern coast have revealed a dramatic shift in the country’s war-preparation playbook: the large-scale use of civilian ferries and cargo ships to simulate a mass amphibious assault on Taiwan. Reuters, which analyzed ship-tracking data and high-frequency satellite imagery over several months, found that China’s “shadow navy” of commercial vessels is now deeply embedded in military drills designed to move troops and heavy equipment across the shoreline at unprecedented speed. Naval warfare experts say the maneuvers point to the development of concrete, increasingly sophisticated invasion plans.
On August 17, twelve civilian vessels—six roll-on, roll-off ferries and six deck cargo ships—left their home waters and began a journey toward a beach in Guangdong Province. Their transponder signals placed them at several ports along the route, though cloud cover obscured satellite views of those stops. After sunset, the vessels converged offshore near Jiesheng, close to what appears to be a military base, and crept toward the shoreline under darkness. Within hours, three cargo ships pushed directly onto the beach. Working with BlackSky Technology, Reuters captured images showing vehicles lined up on deck, ramps extended, and at least one military vehicle already on the sand—the first public evidence of civilian cargo ships directly unloading onto a beach during a People’s Liberation Army landing drill.
Through fog, additional images revealed the vessel Huayizhixing arriving fully loaded with roughly 20 vehicles. Experts told Reuters that these ships, cheap and plentiful compared with traditional military landing craft, are capable of carrying heavy cargo directly to beaches thanks to their shallow draft and rugged ramps. Nearby, narrow self-propelled pier segments—once thought abandoned due to technical issues—returned to service, forming a temporary floating port that allowed larger ships to deliver vehicles without running aground. Other frames captured amphibious assault vehicles cruising toward shore, part of a growing repertoire of tactics the PLA is rehearsing to saturate a beachhead.
The drills unfolded just days before President Xi Jinping presided over a massive military parade in Beijing. Although Xi avoided mentioning Taiwan in his speech, Reuters notes that incorporating the island remains a central political objective for him and the Communist Party. Taiwan, which rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, has long warned of China’s ability to commandeer civilian vessels for military use. Defense Minister Wellington Koo said the island maintains “continuous oversight” of the roll-on, roll-off fleet and has prepared contingency plans to counter its deployment.
Reuters’ investigation underscores the strategic significance of China’s civilian maritime capacity. With its shipyards producing more than half of the world’s commercial vessels, Beijing can field a vast auxiliary fleet that dwarfs anything the United States or Taiwan could assemble. Analysts say these ships could play an indispensable role in delivering hundreds of thousands of troops and equipment needed for an invasion far larger in scale than the Normandy landings of World War II. Yet the analysts also caution that China faces daunting tactical obstacles: treacherous Taiwan Strait weather, mountainous terrain, and heavily fortified landing zones that Taiwan has spent decades preparing.
Satellite images taken between August 22 and 23 show vehicles multiplying rapidly along the Jiesheng shoreline—more than 330 by Reuters’ count. Some appear to have been offloaded directly from the civilian ships tracked by the news agency. Experts say such visible rehearsals also serve a psychological purpose, signaling Beijing’s intent and attempting to intimidate Taiwan without firing a shot. Taiwanese officials described these maneuvers as “cognitive warfare,” warning that Beijing aims to create fear and uncertainty as much as to perfect its amphibious techniques.
Still, the PLA’s progress is unmistakable. Throughout the summer, Reuters tracked more than 100 civilian ships involved in exercises or owned by companies with a record of military cooperation. New patterns emerged: cargo vessels arriving with vehicles already secured on deck; smaller amphibious craft experimenting with multi-point landings; and ferries loading armored vehicles offshore via rear ramps. A floating pier system was assembled and dismantled in just over three hours—far faster than similar U.S. engineering efforts in recent conflicts.
While China’s advances do not guarantee success in an actual invasion, they represent a notable narrowing of the gap between aspiration and capability. Several experts, including former U.S. and Taiwanese naval officers, told Reuters that the use of civilian cargo ships in direct beach landings is a “very significant development” and a major expansion of China’s first-wave capacity. Others warned that even with these gains, sustaining an assault across the strait would require enormous logistical throughput, a challenge that could topple the operation if resupply routes falter.
As the exercises concluded, the twelve shadow navy vessels slipped away from Jiesheng and returned to routine commercial routes, leaving behind a trail of images that suggest a military quietly preparing for an operation of historic magnitude. Whether China is ready—and whether it will ever attempt such a gamble—remains unclear. But as several experts told Reuters, war rarely unfolds according to plan, and both attacker and defender would face risks that could reshape not only the Asia-Pacific region but the world itself.
