In what is a quite shocking bit of visual, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) tank, theoretically designed to spearhead an invasion of Taiwan went beneath the water in 30 seconds. The Chinese government has repeatedly threatened that it will not rule out the use of force to invade Taiwan and claims to have strengthened its military capabilities in recent years to carry out such an invasion. However, a video released on China's state-run mouthpiece CCTV went viral over the weekend after showing an "amphibious" tank capsizing in water.
During the trial run, the crew, all clad in bright orange life jackets, began to gun the engine to pick up speed. However, as the tank began to accelerate, it rapidly took on water on its front end.The crew found themselves with no choice but to jump into the water as the tank quickly went into a vertical position and disappeared beneath the waters. According to the video, the incident took place in 2002 during the early stages of the vehicle's development. The video alleged that engineers have since overcome the challenges and claim to be continuously setting new speed records, with the next goal to be enabling self-driving. In the two days since it was posted, the video has gained 2,290 likes, 1,151 shares, and 222 comments.