Causeway.

This is coolbert:

Taiwan si, China no! We are saved. Invasion Taiwan from mainland China too difficult. More difficult than the Allies going ashore Normandy, 6 June 1944? 

From http://waronthe rocks.com the article by BENJAMIN JENSEN | SEPTEMBER 8, 2022.

See first three paragraphs as copied in entirety and done shamelessly so.

"EXPLAIN[ING] WHY INVADING TAIWAN IS A COSTLY GAMBLE"

"If you click on enough articles, watch television, or read testimony by military leaders, you might think an invasion of Taiwan is imminent. Think tank panels spring up daily discussing how Beijing is learning from Russia’s war in Ukraine. Speculation abounds with worst-case scenarios imagining Xi Jinping using the West’s distraction in Ukraine to invade Taiwan."

"While wargames and focusing attention on Taiwan’s real security challenges are important, the accompanying noise can be misleading and misses the hard reality of planning amphibious operations in the era of precision strike capabilities and information warfare. Here, historical cases illuminate some of the enduring challenges associated with invading Taiwan. While analogies are never perfect, recognizing patterns by cataloguing similarities and differences across cases helps identify key planning challenges."

"In 1944 U.S. military planners drafted a plan to invade Taiwan: Operation Causeway. The plan was ultimately rejected by senior leaders due to the high costs and risks relative to alternatives for advancing against Tokyo. Analyzing Causeway provides a historical baseline against which to assess the enduring challenges of joint forcible entry operations, particularly those executed from the sea. Put simply, crossing a contested sea only to fight on complex, canalizing terrain against a deliberate defense-in-depth makes amphibious assault in Taiwan a more complex operation than even the famed 1944 Operation Overlord — the D-Day landings. A mix of Taiwanese defense planning and the reality of modern battle network competition compound these challenges, making an invasion likely harder in 2022 than in 1944."

AS IT WAS IN 1944 SO IT IS NOW IN 2022?

See previous blog entries the appreciations of an invasion of Taiwan from mainland China and the difficulties as seen as too difficult for such a military operation to succeed:

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2020/07/invasion-roc.html

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2020/11/invasion-roc-ii.html

coolbert.