The Taiwanese government throttled national internet access this week as part of a multilevel military drill testing the island’s resilience in the face of a hypothetical Chinese invasion.
Access was restricted for approximately 30 minutes on Monday as part of the annual Han Kuang defense exercises, which are scheduled to conclude on Friday. Taiwanese military personnel are currently running drills simulating an invasion by Beijing, including exercises in transportation, anti-airdrop, and live-ammunition training.
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“Taiwan’s Han Kuang exercises are designed to ensure that our armed forces can respond rapidly and effectively under the most challenging circumstances,” a Taiwanese official told the Washington Examiner. “The exercises test not only military capabilities, but also command-and-control, mobilization, critical infrastructure protection, communications resilience, and whole-of-society preparedness.”
“These efforts strengthen Taiwan’s own defense capabilities and resilience, while also contributing to the broader peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific,” the official added.
It was the first time that these military exercises were complemented by internet restriction drills, which were rolled out at separate times in three regions of the island. It is only one aspect of national defense that has evolved since the Han Kuang exercises began in the 1980’s.
Drone warfare has also been integrated into the drills. Military police used unmanned aerial vehicles for reconnaissance and practiced firing blanks this year, reflecting the growing importance of the technology since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine War.
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Exercises also explored the realm of psychological warfare, such as the weaponized broadcast of demoralizing propaganda messages.
The threat of Chinese invasion looms large in Taiwan, an island territory that asserts itself as a sovereign nation but is claimed by China.
While cross-strait relations warm and thaw depending on a variety of geopolitical factors, saber-rattling from Beijing has reached deafening levels in recent years. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pointed to 2049, the centennial of the People’s Republic, as the deadline for bringing the island under Communist governance. The conquest of Taiwan is touted as a source of “national rejuvenation.”
The United States does not recognize Taiwan because of its adherence to the One China Policy, but regularly provides support to the island’s military and civic leadership. While the U.S. sees the island as a crucial bulwark against China in the Pacific, President Donald Trump’s administration has refused to budge on the recognition of Taiwanese sovereignty due to the likelihood that such a move could escalate into a hot conflict.
“U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today and as of the meeting that we had here today. It was raised; they always raise it on their side, we always make clear our position, and we move on,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after meeting with his Chinese counterparts earlier this year.
With American military weapon stockpiles depleted from Operation Epic Fury and the campaign against Iran, the threat of Chinese aggression is more dangerous than ever.
However, U.S. intelligence experts have previously claimed that Beijing ultimately desires to integrate Taiwan into the nation via peaceful, nonmilitary means.
“Beijing probably will continue seeking to set the conditions for eventual unification with Taiwan short of conflict,” the U.S.’s 2026 Annual Threat Assessment asserted earlier this year. “China, despite its threat to use force to compel unification if necessary and to counter what it sees as a U.S. attempt to use Taiwan to undermine China’s rise, prefers to achieve unification without the use of force, if possible.”
The opposition party in Taiwan, the Kuomintang, believes that the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party government has made a critical mistake by explicitly asserting the island’s sovereignty.
“The DPP was not very responsible in servicing the so-called ‘two-state theory,’ which caused the disruption of cross-strait dialogues and communication,” Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun told American reporters in June. “We saw a deterioration of the cross-strait relations, and without communications and dialogues, the war can happen at any moment.”
The Kuomintang instead advocates a position of friendliness and cooperation with China, which it believes will ease tensions and lower the chances of an invasion.
