Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s digital minister, told the Telegraph Taipei was seeking a “diverse and heterogeneous” communications system to create “resilience” if the mobile network, landline or submarine cables were disconnected.
“For Taiwan, it is important to maintain communications network operations and services in the event of either a natural disaster or an invasion..Without smooth communication, false information can easily circulate and cause social chaos,” she said.
“From a national security perspective, we learned from the Russian-Ukrainian war that it is very important to maintain high-quality real time communication network services if Taiwan is invaded,” she said.
Wen-ti Sung, a lecturer in Taiwan Studies at the Australian National University, said the undersea fibre-optics cables connecting Taiwan’s internet to the broader world “may be at risk of interruption by the Chinese navy during a conflict.”
The Taiwanese military’s main wartime Joint Operations command Center in Taipei may also be vulnerable to bombings by Chinese bunker busters, he said.
“Taiwan is looking to build more backup centres of wartime communication in an attempt to diversify risks and insure itself against decapitation strikes.”
Additional reporting: Jenny Pan