How China could sleepwalk into its ‘own Vietnam War’ with Taiwan invasion as it faces kill zones and 500,000 fighters

FEARS about a Chinese invasion of Taiwan have been mounting and on the face of it the odds are stacked against the island.

On paper China’s military dwarfs that of Taiwan but a closer look reveals how kill zone beaches, hostile terrain and a 500,000 strong guerrilla army could inflict a Vietnam War-style humiliation on Beijing.

China regards Taiwan as being part of its territory and has vowed to reunite the island with the mainland, by force if necessary.

In recent days, China sent a record number of warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, in drills widely seen as part of invasion rehearsals.  

In order to successfully capture the island, China would have to ship an enormous number of troops, plus their supplies, across the 80 mile Taiwan Strait.

The operation would be the largest amphibious operation in human history, easily surpassing the scale of the D-Day landings.

But when they arrive on Taiwan, the Chinese will have to get past defences far stronger than those faced by the Allies in WWII and significant natural obstacles.

Taiwan has a rugged coastline with steep cliffs making only 13 beaches suitable for landing, which have been turned into killing zones.

A wall of flames would pour out from of miles of underground oil- carrying pipelines, says Ian Easton author of ‘The Chinese Invasion Threat: Taiwan’s Defense and American Strategy in Asia’.

Chinese forces face several miles of “razor wire nets, hook boards, skin-peeling planks, barbed wire fences, wire obstacles, spike strips, landmines, anti-tank barrier walls, anti-tank obstacles … bamboo spikes, felled trees, truck shipping containers, and junkyard cars”, he said.

The landing sites are crisscrossed hardened supply depots to allow defenders to holdout against invasion forces.

There are also large numbers of mobile anti-ship missiles ready to pick off Chinese vessels.

Easton calls the date of a future Chinese invasion of Taiwan Z-Day, the term Winston Churchill used when talking about a potential Nazi invasion of England that never happened when Germany lost the Battle of Britain.

He fears China’s President Xi Jinping’s sabre rattling could lead him sleepwalk into an invasion.