China debuted three types of amphibious combat vehicles at a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War Wednesday in Beijing.
"The amphibious wheeled armored assault vehicles, infantry assault vehicles and self-propelled howitzers reviewed in the parade are key armaments for the marine corps to conduct landing operations and seize key areas at high speed," said Song Dong, a soldier of the PLA Navy Marine Corps participating in the parade.
These three types of equipment are flexible and mobile in water during amphibious assaults and are the backbone equipment for leading the way in beach landing and seizing control points, Song said.
With improved flotation aids and propulsion devices, the new generation of amphibious combat vehicles have better buoyancy reserve and wind/wave resistance. That will support higher speed of navigation at sea.
The rapid response capability of the wheeled amphibious vehicles enables them to quickly switch to launching attacks on deep areas of the enemy after the initial amphibious landing.
"The new equipment has expanded our amphibious performance, firepower performance and protection performance by improving the safety of maritime navigation and enhancing the adaptability to coastal environments. They are being used to carry out various military tasks such as amphibious operations, rapid deep assaults and key point defense. They have satisfied the needs of various military tasks and improved overall combat effectiveness," said Song.
The Amphibious Assault Formation was part of the land combat group showcased at the grand parade Wednesday in Beijing.
Other series of armament formations at the parade included maritime combat group, air defense and anti-missile operations group, information warfare group, unmanned combat group, logistics and equipment support group and strategic strike group.
China debuts new amphibious combat vehicles at V-Day parade
Chinese scientists announced Monday that they have achieved a breakthrough in yak cloning, with 10 cloned calves all naturally delivered in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.
These calves, consisting of three black yaks and seven white ones, were born from March 25 to April 5 at a yak breeding and research base in Xizang's Damxung County, all meeting expected standards and steadily gaining weight.
The mass births came after the first cloned yak was born in July 2025, which has grown healthily and weighs about 183 kg now.
The achievement was made using a domestically developed breeding system that combines whole-genome selection with somatic cell cloning, following three years of research by a Chinese scientific team.
"Whole-genome selection can accurately pinpoint excellent genetic loci associated with large body size, fast growth, strong fecundity and disease resistance, high feed conversion efficiency, and tolerance to high-altitude and low-oxygen conditions (cold resistance). On this basis, somatic cell cloning enables 1:1 precise replication of the genotype through asexual rapid propagation (cloning), thereby compressing the breeding cycle to within five years," said Fang Shengguo, a professor at the College of Life Sciences at Zhejiang University and director of the State Conservation Center for Gene Resources of Endangered Wildlife.
Yak farming is one of the key industries targeted for development in Xizang during the country's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030). Traditional yak breeding has relied on phenotype selection, a process that can take up to 20 years and often leads to declining genetic quality.
Researchers said the new method can shorten the breeding cycle to less than five years by accurately identifying desirable genetic traits such as faster growth, disease resistance, feed efficiency and adaptation to high-altitude, low-oxygen environments, while enabling rapid replication of elite breeding stock.
Experts added that the technology could also support conservation efforts for rare yak genetic resources, including the endangered golden wild yak, whose population in Xizang is estimated at more than 300.
So far, the research team has developed more than 200 cloned embryos of golden wild yaks and hybrid wild-blood yaks, laying the groundwork for future embryo transfer and species recovery programs.
China achieves large-scale births of cloned yaks
