Taiwan should invest more to ensure its connectivity to the outside world remains robust.
Wu Jong-shinn, Director of the newly rebranded Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), formerly known as the National Space Organization, giving a briefing on satellite development, January 6, 2023. Credit: 總統府 via Flickr
Internet connectivity is a lifeline – albeit a fragile one – for Taiwan. A recent war game staged in Taipei with experts from the military, tech industries, academia, and government suggested that, in the event of a Chinese blockade, the island would be particularly vulnerable to a communications cutoff.
The threat to Taiwan’s digital infrastructure was made plain in February, when Chinese maritime vessels severed two submarine cables connecting the island to Matsu, a tiny archipelago that belongs to Taiwan but is located just off the coast of China. The months-long outage deprived residents of internet access and left Matsu, which houses a strategic military base, open to attacks. The damaged cables also exposed the vulnerability of the US tech giant Google, which has a data center on Taiwan’s western coast.
To protect itself, Taiwan – already a global leader in the semiconductor supply chain – must develop indigenous capabili
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.