Taiwan says China is stepping up preparations for a blockade of the island
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that China’s People’s Liberation Army is intensifying preparations for a possible blockade of the island. At the same time, Taiwan’s military is refining plans to counter such a scenario, the South China Morning Post reports.
Focus on air and sea routes
The assessment was set out in Taiwan’s defense ministry report, “2026 China Military Power Report.” The document was submitted to the legislative body this week together with a five-year armed forces development plan and a draft defense budget for next year.
The report states that recent PLA drills have increasingly focused on a joint blockade and control of Taiwan’s external air and sea routes. According to the ministry, the maneuvers included practicing a maritime and air blockade or quarantine, joint fire strikes, gaining comprehensive battlefield superiority, and joint amphibious landing operations.
Taiwan’s ministry believes that these measures are intended to strengthen the PLA’s ability to strike the island, as well as conduct anti-access and area-denial operations to counter possible intervention by foreign forces. Beijing considers Taiwan part of China and has never renounced the use of force to reunify it with the mainland.
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Preparing for a blockade scenario
The report also says that targeted PLA drills simulated a blockade or quarantine, military-law-enforcement operations, and long-range live-fire strikes. Chinese aircraft and drones continued to cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait, while warships approached waters near the island’s contiguous zone, which extends 24 nautical miles, or 44 kilometers, from the coast.
To counter such threats, Taiwan plans to strengthen C5ISR networks — command, control, communications, computers, cyber defense, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems. The military also intends to use AI-supported systems in decision-making.
One scenario in Taiwan’s drills involved a blockade of western ports and shipping routes. Under such conditions, foreign aid and critical cargo were to arrive through a “strategic supply line” near the eastern coast. Navy and coast guard vessels formed a protective screen around a landing ship acting as a merchant vessel carrying essential supplies.
At the same time, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense assessed the PLA’s current capability to launch a full-scale amphibious operation as insufficient. In the ministry’s view, China would need to land troops in several locations simultaneously, maintain air and sea superiority, and ensure reinforcements and supplies.
