US intelligence has said Xi has ordered the PLA to be capable of invasion by 2027, although military experts have noted that a number of variables – including ongoing corruption issues in the PLA and the unpredictability of US support for Taiwan under Trump – could push that in either direction.
Regardless, the PLA is now undergoing one of the biggest military buildups since the second world war. Xi has overhauled the command structure, boosted missile and nuclear stocks, and strengthened paramilitary arms including the coastguard and the paramilitary fleet of fishing boats known as the maritime militia. The different groups are cooperating more than ever on joint operations.
Satellite images show the barges were escorted by at least two civilian ships from a nearby civilian dock, and that several other boats – including some marked as fishing vessels on their tracking ID – were sailing laps behind them, appearing to practise running interference.
At least three more barges are under construction or in early testing. The barge design suggests they have been built to work with the roll-on, roll-off ferries that China has been repurposing or building to bring tanks and another heavy armoured vehicles across the Taiwan Strait.
Intel announced they are relying on TSMC even more heavily and without letup in a recent investors call. This is WW3 building up. We have an atrocious auto industry that is incapable of integrated engineering, Boeing is a shitfest, and Intel that makes iterative downgrade products that are several generations behind its own products and nowhere near AMD.
When China invades Taiwan, North Korea will invade the South at the same time. That takes out all leading edge silicon hardware instantly. We'll have tanks that go dead when they stop and play an ad, planes that drop doors instead of munitions, and antique new computers.