The date is early 2021, and cross-strait relations
between Taiwan and China are at a crisis point. The new incoming American President has resumed
full-scale arms sales to Taiwan and publicly declared America's military support for the
island democracy. For the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, this is unacceptable- not only
is Taiwan a renegade province in their eyes, but the entire party knows that the continued
existence and prosperity of this small breakaway democracy on their doorstep is a fatal threat to
their power. Already disgruntled Chinese youth are calling for more civil liberties,
like their cousins in Taiwan enjoy. The Chinese hope to capitalize on the chaos in
Washington as the new President replaces the outgoing President and make preparations to at
last do what they've promised to do for decades: reunification by force. The outlook is grim-
China's defense budget is a staggering 237 billion versus Taiwan's meager 10 billion. The Chinese
military numbers at just over 2 million, with Taiwan's own numbering at 165,000. What hope does the small island nation have? Chinese military planners begin the
process of preparing for an invasion. There are only two short four week windows
throughout the year when an invasion across the tumultuous Taiwanese Strait is possible-
April and October. Any other time of the year an invasion would simply be unfeasible,
with weather and sea conditions too unstable. The Chinese immediately begin mobilizing
their eastern and southern military districts, and PLA conscripts are put through a crash,
three-week amphibious warfare course. But there are problems before
the invasion even begins. The biggest problem is the lack of
a suitable amphibious assault fleet. China only has 22 small landing ships and 37
amphibious transport docks, each of which can carry around four tanks or armored vehicles and
two infantry companies. The number of available vessels is reduced even further when three of
China's Type 071 amphibious transport dock ships are severely damaged by saboteurs. The war may
not have started yet, but Taiwan's vast number of intelligence agents and special operations
forces are already at work on the mainland. China will need at least half a million
soldiers for the invasion to succeed, and with such a limited mobility fleet, the
government immediately begins to press merchant marine and civilian vessels into military
service. Troops, equipment, and large numbers of the People's Liberation Army Rocket Forces
must be maneuvered into place for the attack, giving Taiwan a 60 day head start on preparing
for the invasion. With so much manpower and firepower being moved around, keeping the
invasion secret is completely impossible. Taiwanese saboteurs continue complicating
matters for the Chinese. A propaganda campaign hits mainland China, warning of the great cost
in human lives that the invasion will incur. While some of the younger Chinese population
is disturbed by the prospect of invasion, the older Chinese population has been told for decades
that the Chinese military could easily crush any Taiwanese resistance. The effect of the propaganda
campaign barely affects the invasion plans. Other Taiwanese operations
however are far more effective. Special forces ambush and assassinate several
high ranking People's Liberation Army officers as well as key politicians. The morale of the
Chinese military is rocked as the realization that Taiwan can strike so deep into the mainland hits
the mostly conscripted troops. Taiwanese saboteurs destroy several railways, highway bridges, and
power plants across the nation, causing massive delays in moving troops and equipment to the
staging areas. The Chinese economy takes a small dive as jittery investors sell stock and hoard
capital in anticipation of a worsening situation. Across the strait however, Chinese agents are
also busy at work. The Chinese don't blow up bridges and rail lines, as the Taiwanese
are already prepared to do that themselves as they fight a defensive retreat from the
landing beaches. Instead, Chinese special forces and undercover operatives strike at
Taiwanese military and civilian leadership. Several Taiwanese generals are killed, as well as
some low ranking government officials- however, Taiwan has long prepared for exactly this scenario
and their security measures are extremely robust. Taiwanese civilians however
aren't so well protected, and several prominent pro-independence celebrities
and activists are all murdered by Chinese agents. China’s willingness to kill
civilians though only further emboldens the Taiwanese defenders.
They will not be ruled by the CCP. April and its calmer weather finally
arrives, and the Chinese invasion begins. The opening act of the Chinese operation to
reunify Taiwan is the greatest missile attack in human history. China maintains one of the world's
largest arsenals of non-nuclear ballistic and land/sea attack missiles, operated by the PLARF-
its military service dedicated to missile combat. Hundreds of missiles streak out across
the Taiwan strait in the opening salvo, each one aimed at a predetermined target chosen
years before as new invasion plans are drafted and updated. Power plants, government buildings,
military airfields and installations are all saturated with missile strikes, and after
several waves of hundreds of missiles each, every civilian and military airfield
on the island has been cratered. Every government building has been destroyed,
and the only working power plants are over the mountains on the east side of the island,
which are much more difficult to hit. Yet, Taiwan has its own missiles, and it responds
with a lesser volume, but no less lethal attack. Taiwan's missiles are aimed at the invasion
staging areas, decimating troops waiting to board their landing ships and hitting many of the most
forward air fields. Radar and communications nodes along the east coast of China are targeted, and
dozens are destroyed by Taiwanese cruise missiles. The real cost of a Taiwan invasion is starting to sink in for the troops
even now putting out to sea. Screaming over the heads of soldiers sailing to
Taiwan are dozens of Chinese fighters and bombers. Though Taiwan's air fields have been devastated,
the country has planned for this too, and its fighters have been for a long
time safely housed in mountain bunkers capable of withstanding a nuclear attack.
Highways are turned into air fields, and Taiwan's fighters take to the air
to meet the teeth of the Chinese attack. Taiwan holds its fighters safely shielded from
targeting and detection behind the mountains that run along the middle of the island. This
is a major problem for China's own fighters, who are forced to seek out the
Taiwanese American-made F-16s and indigenously made F-CK-1Cs. As they cross
the west of Taiwan, road-mobile air defenses, too agile to be targeted by missile
strikes, light up the Chinese planes, as Taiwan's air forces ambush the
Chinese from behind the mountain. The initial sorties are
overwhelmingly in Taiwan's favor, but China has over 1200 combat
aircraft. Taiwan has only 289. Not all of China's air force can be deployed
however, both because of logistical issues and because of a lack of suitable
airfields near enough the conflict zone. This levels the playing field somewhat, but
China still has a sizable numbers advantage. The Taiwanese defenders fight valiantly in the
air, but they are forced to pick their fights, and can't defend every
military unit under air attack. Thousands of ships steam across the
Taiwanese strait. Most are civilian vessels, very poorly suited for amphibious operations
of any kind. Only a few are proper amphibious assault ships. The landing fleet is escorted by
Chinese destroyers and guided missile cruisers, who are busily searching the
waterway for a deadly threat. Anti-submarine warfare however is something the People's Liberation Army Navy is
extremely poorly equipped to undertake. All four of Taiwan's submarines
have been dedicated to this fight. Now they lurk under predetermined positions
in very deep waters, barely making a noise. Even for a foe with sophisticated undersea
capabilities, they would be an extremely difficult foe to find and destroy as
they sit silently, waiting in ambush. The subs don't have to move, they must
simply let the invasion fleet come to them. Once within range, they open up with American-made
torpedoes, sinking several of the larger ships. Each Taiwanese submariner knows that they are
the first line of defense for their homeland, and retreat is not an option until their
full complement of torpedoes has been fired. The first wave of the invasion fleet
is rocked by dozens of torpedo attacks, but at last Chinese subs manage to track
and destroy two of the Taiwanese boats, with the other two finally fleeing after
expending their entire inventory of munitions. The fleet can barely spot the Taiwanese coast
still dozens of miles away, and already thousands of Chinese soldiers and sailors are dead. Morale
amongst the tens of thousands of conscripts either out at sea or waiting their turn to embark starts
to plummet. This was supposed to be an easy war. The fleet moves to within two dozen
miles of Taiwan when suddenly, the lead ship in the formation explodes and begins
to sink. Another ship quickly follows, and then a third. With growing horror, the Chinese sailors
realize that they've sailed straight into a vast mine field created by the Taiwanse navy over
two weeks ago in preparation for the invasion. Thousands of sea mines have been dispersed over a
sixty mile stretch of ocean, and despite hundreds of Chinese minesweepers, sea mines are amongst
the most difficult weapons to detect and destroy. More explosions rock the fleet, though this
time, not from mines. Now its air-launched cruise missiles launched by Taiwan's air force,
held in reserve until exactly this time. With Taiwan's shores in sight, less than half of the
first invasion wave is still intact- the rest has either been sunk or forced to break off and return
to port. The fact that most of these vessels are civilian ships with civilian crews pressed
into service only makes things worse for China. There are only thirteen suitable landing beaches
for an invasion of Taiwan, and the nation has taken extensive measures to defend them. As the
first wave of landing craft makes for shore, the ships are immediately opened up on by shore
defenses. Despite round after round of missile and air attack, Taiwan's beach defenses are
built to last, consisting of deep reinforced tunnels that shelter infantry and allow them
to move freely, and underground supply depots. Chinese air attack was also supposed to take
out most of Taiwan's artillery, anti-tank guns, and combat tanks, but with thousands of
decoys built and spread around the island, only about a third of Taiwan's heavy equipment
has been destroyed by China's air force. Inevitably though, some of the landing craft
make their way to shore- only to be immediately met by a wall of fire. Buried under its
thirteen probable landing sites, Taiwan has built long oil pipelines which discharge
thousands of gallons of oil into the water, which is then ignited. Flames consume
landing ships and scores of men die or jump into the oil-slick water, drowning from
the weight of all their combat equipment. At last the first wave manages to make landfall
though, and men rush to find defensible positions from which to assault the Taiwanese defenses...
except there are no defensible positions. The beaches have been closed to the public for weeks,
and stripped bare of any defensible features. Hills have been leveled with heavy equipment
and strands of trees toppled. What meets the Chinese invaders is a moonscape of sand and
rock--- and thousands of mines and booby traps. Razor-wire snares entangle the feet of advancing
soldiers, boards full of sharp hooks lie buried under a thin layer of sand. Planks embedded with
razor-sharp bits of metal await anyone unwary enough or unlucky enough to step or crawl over
one, shredding skin to the bone. Spike trips and pitfall traps only add to the overwhelming
dangers awaiting the Chinese on the beach. Chinese forces have only one option:
cross a mile of booby traps and mine fields or get decimated on the
beaches by Taiwanese artillery. The beaches are hell for Chinese soldiers, but
their armored vehicles are faring little better. The few that manage to make it to shore
face anti-vehicle mines and tank traps, as well as a robust number of anti-tank weapons
now wielded by 1.6 million Taiwanese reservists. The long preparation time for the
invasion by the Chinese forces has been put to good use by Taiwan,
which recalled its massive reservist forces over a month ago and immediately
began training to resist the invasion. The second wave is rushed across the strait,
as the first is dangerously close to being pushed back out to sea by the defenders. The
rush sees many ships stray into mines however, despite the safety lanes carefully cleared
out by Chinese minesweepers. Despite the tight lid that Chinese leadership is keeping on the
casualties being suffered by the invasion fleet, rumors are spreading rapidly, and the
morale of China's conscript forces is already hitting new lows. They were promised
a swift victory against an inferior enemy. Taiwan is proving to be stubbornly resistant, and
far from inferior to the mainland forces. In fact, the training received by Taiwan's
officers from American instructors has helped shape Taiwan's forces
into an extremely capable force. The People's Liberation Army
however, is faring far worse. While Taiwan has had the advantage of
close cooperation and training with American combat veteran instructors, the People's
Liberation Army has not fought a major conflict since it was defeated by Vietnam in
1979 during a short-lived border war. While China claimed victory, it failed in its
objective to remove Vietnam from Cambodia, and outside observers all agreed
that Vietnam had outperformed China. Since 1979, the Chinese military has been
plagued by corruption, and despite President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption efforts, the Chinese
military remains rife with ineffectual officers. Low morale amongst its overwhelmingly
conscript force is also a critical concern, as is the very poor and unrealistic
training of its military forces. The lack of experience in modern combat
and an officer corps still suffering the effects of decades of corruption all
add up to a strategic disaster in Taiwan. Despite managing to at last make landfall
with the majority of its invasion fleet, the PLA's inexperience creates a logistical
disaster. Add to that the tens of thousands of booby traps meant to destroy tanks,
helicopters, and men, as well as the mining and demolition of every strategically
important roadway and bridge, and China's military is running into extreme difficulties
coordinating its forces for cohesive action. Taiwan takes full advantage of the confusion
and wages a merciless guerilla warfare campaign against the invaders. With dozens of miles
of swampy marshlands between its forces and all of the most important strategic
objectives, China's forces are being bled dry. By the end of the first week, casualties are sky
high and morale is plunging across the Chinese military. Political will for the invasion
is evaporating as the human and economic costs begin to ramp up, and civil unrest quickly
follows as angry Chinese citizens realize that they were lied to for decades about the quick
victory over Taiwan they were always promised. And that's when the first of three American
Pacific aircraft carrier battlegroups arrive a hundred miles off Taiwan's
coast, reinforced by an entire US Marine and a Japanese Self Defense
Forces Expeditionary force.
I must say the best comment was:
Is this just the video version of this article?
Also:
... this video maker is aware that 50% of Taiwan's submarines were built in 1944, right?
I’m sure Chinas changes to recruiting standards wouldn’t bite them in a high stress environment.
“The PLA has also for the first time removed mental illnesses from a list that would bar candidates from military service, including schizophrenia, dissociative disorder, depression and bipolar disorder.”
What Chinese general would even think this is a good idea. The largest and most powerful navy in the world would show up in a day and destroy everything with star they could see.
Fucking lol