China recently displayed, for the first time, a number of new locally designed military vehicles at its 60th anniversary celebrations. Among these new items was the ZBD2000 Amphibious Infantry Fighting Vehicle, designed for beach assault and/or accompanying infantry as they move inland. The tracked vehicle comes in 3 different versions and serves the Chinese (PLA) Marine Corps.
In its primary configuration as an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, the 8 ton ZBD2000 is armed with a central positioned angular turret comprising a 30mm cannon, 7.62mm machine gun and single anti-tank guided missile launcher. Also, 2 sets of smoke grenade dischargers sit on either side of the main gun.
This will come in handy for an invasion of Taiwan. And really, what other purpose could it have? Invading Japan? I rather doubt it.
Sure, it would be useful to invade North Korea by hitting the west coast while troops drive south from the border, but the obvious reason for building these is to invade Taiwan.
