China doesnt need that many as 500k to 1 million men to occupy Taiwan. China just has to totally destroy any strategic assests and defensive weaponary and installations such as military airports and airplanes, missile launch sites and stockpile, navy ports and ships, command and communication centres, arms factories and supplies centres, political and broadcasting centres and power generating centres. In other words, China has to literally destroy or paralyze Taiwanese military's ability to fight effectively and also paralyze the society at large before attempting to land. All these objectives can be achieved with firing advanced Chinese ballistic missiles and rocket artilleries first, then bombing and attacking valuable assests with drones and stealth bombers and fighters. Then Chinese air force and navy can seize control of Taiwan air space and sea water. Then, send 200k to 300k army through air and sea to land and control of the island, this many PLA should be enough if US doesnt get involved.If the war in Ukraine showed anything is that speed and momentum are key. If China can establish and secure multiple footholds on Taiwan within 24-48 hours of the outbreak it has a chance to win. Prolonged conflict favors the defender, especially if the US can dare the Chinese to shoot down resupply flights to the Taiwanese.
China will need between 500k and a million man invasion force for just the first wave alone; probably requiring tens of thousands of helicopters and tens of thousands of landing crafts. Striking with that kind of wright is the only kind of numbers that will overwhelm the superiority of western weaponry. Also, it would also mean China wouldn’t have to direct attack any non-Taiwanese assets to pre-empt a counter attack or outside forces coming to Taiwan’s aid. It would be a fait accompli at that point.
At that point most of this weapons being procured will be pointless in a Taiwan scenario, except for potentially blocking Chinese SLOC, for which China will need to depend on BRI; and circumvent all the “island chains”, opposing carriers, etc. perhaps seeing this, after some time, Taiwan reintegration will be accepted as a defacto reality, similar to how the world recognizes North Korea or Vietnam, some years after the wars ended.
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