China praktiziert eine Taiwan-Blockade mit einer schwimmenden Chinesischen Mauer

You are looking at the single biggest glitch in the US Navy’s defense algorithm. While Washington spends billions on hypersonic missiles to sink destroyers, Beijing has figured out that you don’t need to sink a ship to stop it—you just need to put a thousand fishing boats in its way.

Jill Goldenziel’s analysis of the „Floating Great Wall“ covers the headline, but here is the operational nightmare she is alluding to that keeps Pacific Command up at night.

First, it is a Rules of Engagement trap. The genius of deploying 2,000 „civilian“ vessels isn’t their firepower; it’s their legal status. A US carrier strike group is built to fight a kinetic war against other combatants, not to shoot its way through a swarm of unarmed trawlers. If an American destroyer fires on a „fishing boat“ that is blocking a shipping lane, Beijing wins the propaganda war instantly. If the destroyer stops to board and inspect, it gets swarmed and immobilized. It is effectively weaponized traffic.

Second, notice they aren’t calling this a „blockade“ (which is an act of war). They are practicing for a „quarantine“ or „customs enforcement zone“. The trick is they declare they are inspecting ships for „contraband“ or „safety violations“. The result? They don’t have to sink merchant ships bound for Taiwan; they just have to delay them. Global shipping insurance rates will skyrocket, and commercial trade will stop voluntarily because no insurer will cover a hull entering a „law enforcement zone“. They can strangle Taiwan’s economy without technically firing a shot.

Finally, those 2,000 boats aren’t just a physical barrier; they are a 2,000-node human radar network. Every trawler has a radio and a sat-phone, turning the entire Taiwan Strait into a panopticon where no US submarine or surface ship can move undetected.

The verdict is that the US Navy has a doctrine for fighting the People’s Liberation Army Navy, but it has zero doctrine for fighting a „civilian“ militia that refuses to move. We are preparing for D-Day; they are preparing for a massive, militarized traffic jam.

So many things there. Every boat with a commercial fixed frequency radio and fishing boat radar is a dead-easy target. China has horrible deep-water access. There are a few key choke points that this wall don’t resolve; if anything they complicate it.

Not going to pretend I can speak to 3/5/6 fleet strategy, but this smacks of Iraqs impenetrable ditch defences in the 90’s. They lasted for a few hours.

Wait until the maritime drones get into action.

So, let me get this straight. China who has been threatening to invade Taiwan since the end of WW2 and hasn’t , is practicing a blockade on Taiwan for the umpteenth time since the 40’s, on who is their 4th largest trading partner and the home of TSMC the world’s largest chip manufacturer who fills a shit ton of chip orders for China both directly and indirectly. Let me cut to the chase here. China is never gonna actually blockade or invade Taiwan, they are going to wait until a hoped future time when reunification with the mainland is something the Taiwanese want. They will never use military force on Taiwan because they would end up doing two things that are very bad for them. First any real war would damage or destroy what makes Taiwan valuable to them and second any real war would hurt their own economy in a big way via attacking one of their largest trade partners. So why does China saber rattle like this a few times a year? My guess is that it plays to their internal politics of demonstrating to their people that China is a great power and also I think they hope to wear down internal opposition to reunification in Taiwan itself. This game has been going on since 1946 and it will continue to do so for decades.

How do you form a physical blockade with ships in the age of missiles?

Spreading all those ships thin would make very easy targets? Would be hard to get missile defence across the whole blockade?

send two Jedi, the will sort it out with the Trade Federation

Lol, look at the way Ukraine hit russia black sea fleet, blockade will not work well for China.

Fuck CCP

That would be one glorious A-10 run.