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
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