The government yesterday slowed mobile Internet coverage for a large swathe of the central part of Taiwan proper for the first time during annual war games, simulating communication disruption in the event of a Chinese attack or natural disaster.
Taiwan, which has long lived with the threat of a Chinese invasion, holds air raid drills along with its war games every year, clearing people from the streets for 30 minutes.
During the Internet “throttling” drill, centered on Taichung, only basic mobile phone services worked, although other functions, including ATMs, traffic signals, landlines and fixed-line Internet services, were not affected.
Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg
Air raid sirens rang out in Taichung and people cleared the streets from 2:30pm as the government sent simultaneous text messages in Chinese and English telling mobile phone users of “simulated air attacks on communication infrastructure.”
The government had widely announced the drill ahead of time, including posting details on social media, and most people Reuters spoke to at the Taichung Railway Station were prepared.
Some people tested it themselves and found that mobile Internet speeds had indeed dropped to zero. Fixed-line Internet at work or home, using desktops or laptops, continued to work normally.
Photo: Cheng-Chia Huang, Reuters
Many people said that the disruption to mobile Internet service made them realize how much information they are unable to access when their phones cannot connect to the Internet, and stressed the importance of preparing essential information for offline use.
The same exercise is to be repeated on Thursday in northern Taiwan, including Taipei.
Earlier yesterday, the military simulated repelling a Chinese air landing assault on the strategically vital Penghu Islands.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
The 10-day Han Kuang Exercises started last week, rehearsing various scenarios should China try to seize Taiwan by force.
Troops from the First Theater Command opened fire in the pre-dawn hours on a beach in Penghu, which sits in the Taiwan Strait, with M60A3 tanks, various artillery pieces and anti-aircraft guns.
The troops were combining to form what the military called a “multilayered” defense against a simulated enemy attempting a rapid coastal landing.
Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg
Reservists from Penghu took part in the exercise, part of their 14-day training program as the military works to better integrate reserve forces into its operational planning and make its preparations more realistic.
The armed forces also tested their ability to mobilize transportation resources overnight from Sunday to yesterday by using commercial flatbed trucks to transport tanks during a cross-regional reinforcement exercise in eastern Taiwan.
The scenario assumed that northern Taiwan had come under attack, prompting a combined arms battalion based in Hualien County to reinforce defenses in neighboring Yilan County to the northeast.
The main objective was to transport military vehicles from Hualien to Yilan overnight using civilian flatbed trailers. About 70 civilian flatbed trucks and M60A3 tanks were mobilized for the exercise.
These tanks were loaded onto the trucks and transported from Hualien to Yilan via Provincial Highway No. 9 and the Suhua Highway along Taiwan’s east coast.
After arriving at a designated assembly area in Yilan early yesterday, the tanks were unloaded using civilian cranes before moving to nearby strategic positions. The transport exercise lasted about five hours.
The battalion continued the exercise yesterday morning, simulating the defense of Yilan’s coast against an enemy force.
Additional reporting by Liu Hsiao-hsin
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Facts Only
* Taiwan's government throttled mobile Internet coverage in central Taiwan, specifically Taichung.
* The drill simulated communication disruptions caused by natural disasters or a Chinese attack.
* Basic mobile phone services remained functional; ATMs, traffic signals, landlines, and fixed-line Internet were unaffected.
* Air raid sirens rang in Taichung at 2:30pm, accompanied by bilingual text messages.
* The exercise is scheduled to repeat in northern Taiwan, including Taipei, on Thursday.
* The military conducted a simulated defense against a Chinese air landing assault on the Penghu Islands.
* The 10-day Han Kuang Exercises involve various scenarios regarding a forced seizure of Taiwan by China.
* Military forces used M60A3 tanks, artillery, and anti-aircraft guns on a Penghu beach.
* A cross-regional reinforcement exercise involved transporting M60A3 tanks from Hualien to Yilan via Provincial Highway No. 9 and Suhua Highway.
* Approximately 70 civilian flatbed trucks and cranes were utilized for the transport exercise.
* China's State Council released new exit and entry regulations effective September 15.
* Japan's Defense White Paper reported Chinese military aircraft sorties around Taiwan increased from 970 in 2021 to over 3,700 last year.
* Typhoon Dolphin is moving west toward China, with heavy rainfall forecasted for Hsinchu and Miaoli.
Executive Summary
Taiwan is currently conducting the 10-day Han Kuang Exercises, a series of military drills designed to rehearse defenses against a potential forced seizure of the territory by China. These exercises include simulating the repelling of coastal landings in the Penghu Islands and testing the overnight mobilization of armor from Hualien to Yilan using civilian transportation infrastructure. For the first time, the government integrated a "throttling" drill in Taichung, temporarily disabling mobile Internet to test public resilience and simulate infrastructure failure.
Beyond internal drills, regional tensions are underscored by Japan's recent Defense White Paper, which notes a significant increase in Chinese naval and aerial sorties around Taiwan since 2021. Simultaneously, new Chinese regulatory frameworks effective September 15 may expand the state's power to restrict the travel of Taiwanese citizens based on national security oversight. These security concerns coincide with natural threats, as Typhoon Dolphin is currently impacting the region, bringing heavy rainfall to the central mountains and north.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative presents a society methodically preparing for "total war" by testing the intersection of military readiness, civilian infrastructure, and psychological resilience. By throttling mobile internet, the state is moving beyond traditional kinetic drills to address the cognitive dependency of the modern citizen on real-time connectivity.
The narrative relies on a tight juxtaposition of military readiness, regional intelligence (Japan's White Paper), and legal pressures (China's exit regulations). This creates a cumulative effect of encirclement, where the reader perceives threats emanating from the air, the sea, and the legal bureaucracy simultaneously.
Patterns detected: none
The driving paradigm is one of "Permanent Readiness." It assumes that a conflict is not merely possible, but an inevitable baseline for which the civilian population must be conditioned. This echoes the Cold War era of civil defense, but updated for the digital age where "information blackout" is as critical a vulnerability as a physical bridge collapse.
The implication is a gradual normalization of state-managed disruption. While these drills increase survival probability in a crisis, they also establish a precedent for the government to unilaterally suspend communication services. The benefit is systemic resilience; the cost is a subtle erosion of the expectation of uninterrupted digital agency.
Bridge Questions:
1. How does the psychological effect of a "simulated" blackout differ from the actual experience of one during a crisis?
2. What alternative communication redundancies exist for the civilian population beyond "offline information"?
3. To what extent do these public displays of readiness serve as a deterrent versus a provocation?
Counterstrike Scan: An influence campaign would likely amplify the "blackout" aspect to trigger panic or suggest the government is already losing control of infrastructure. The current content does not match this; it emphasizes transparency, prior announcement, and the continued functionality of essential services.