Taiwan is preparing for a first-of-its-kind Taiwan internet slowdown next week. The plan will deliberately reduce mobile internet speeds nationwide. It is designed to test how citizens would communicate if bandwidth became scarce during a disaster or a Chinese invasion. The plan, confirmed by CNN, is part of the island's largest annual military exercise, called Han Kuang. It follows a week in which Taiwan news centered on a far more dramatic rehearsal. President Lai Ching-te practiced escaping an attempted "decapitation strike" on the government's leadership.
According to a statement from the president's office, Lai and his staff were whisked late Wednesday from their Taipei offices. An armored personnel carrier moved them to a fortified command center near the Defense Ministry. Presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said the drill was designed to review command structure and inter-agency coordination. It also tested emergency-response mechanisms so the government could keep functioning during any hostile action against the island. A government handout video showed the armored vehicle racing through Taipei streets. Lai wore a flak jacket, listened to briefings and issued instructions.
The drill, known as "Wan Chun," simulates evacuating Taiwan's leader to safety during war or another emergency. It dates back to the Cold War. Then-leader Chiang Kai-shek grew wary of an assassination or capture attempt by the Chinese Communist Party. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory, despite never having controlled it. Previous Taiwanese leaders, including Tsai Ing-wen and Ma Ying-jeou, have taken part in similar drills. This year marked the first time Lai personally participated.
The exercise carries fresh urgency because of events elsewhere this year. CNN pointed to the United States' capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in early January. It also cited the US-Israeli strikes targeting Iran's leadership early in the war against Iran. Both are real-world examples of decapitation-style operations against a government's top officials. Charles Lyons-Jones, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute's Foreign Policy and Public Opinion Program in Australia, wrote in March that "Taiwan needs to ready itself for the scenario now unfolding in Iran—and fast." A senior Taiwan defense official told reporters ahead of the drills that they are no longer a "lab-like exercise in a vacuum." CNN cited that comment as evidence of how seriously officials are treating the threat.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly vowed to bring Taiwan under Communist Party control. He has not ruled out using force. CNN reported that images circulated from China over the years have shown a mockup of Taiwan's presidential office. Other government buildings and Taipei street layouts have also been built in the Chinese desert, with troops training to attack the replica. Beijing also maintains near-constant pressure on the island through its own military drills. It uses gray-zone activity, tactics that rely on law enforcement and administrative assets rather than open military force, in waters and airspace around Taiwan.
Bridges, Ports and 20,000 Reservists
The leadership-evacuation drill was only one piece of a much larger exercise. On the second night of Han Kuang, Taiwanese troops rehearsed defending the Danjiang Bridge. The nearly one-kilometer span opened earlier this year and hovers above the Tamsui River. CNN described the bridge as a potential shortcut for Chinese forces trying to reach Taipei. It sits near the Taipei port and nearby beaches that could serve as a staging ground for an invading military. Soldiers built layers of barriers and rolled out barbed wire to simulate blocking an enemy advance across the span.
Across the first two days of the exercise, roughly 20,000 reservists were mobilized. They practiced defending critical infrastructure, including ports, power plants and bridges, CNN reported. Air-defense systems such as Patriot missiles and Taiwan's domestically produced Tien-Kung were visible on streets in downtown Taipei during the drills. This underscored how much of the exercise unfolded in full public view rather than behind closed doors.
A Muted Public Reaction to the Internet Test
The planned Taiwan internet slowdown, set for next week, has received less attention than the leadership-escape drill. But it could matter just as much in a real crisis. The test asks whether ordinary citizens could still communicate if 5G networks were degraded or knocked offline. According to the Wall Street Journal, Taiwan's government has already begun conditioning the public for that possibility. It pushed urgent alerts to millions of cellphones this week warning that high-speed 5G service would be disrupted. The alerts arrived with the loud, jarring buzz of an emergency system normally reserved for natural disasters such as typhoons or earthquakes, the Journal reported.
But the Journal found that the public response to the warning was largely muted. Many residents in Taipei and beyond did not seem especially alarmed by the prospect of a Chinese attack severing their internet access. The newspaper's reporting indicated that despite the government's efforts to use alert channels typically deployed for storms and quakes, the message did not appear to generate the urgency officials may have intended. The Journal noted that "the government might need a louder alarm."
News of the drills is likely to keep circulating as Han Kuang continues through its full ten days. Both the leadership-evacuation rehearsal and the coming Taiwan internet slowdown are drawing attention. Whether the deliberate bandwidth restriction next week produces a bigger public reaction than this week's emergency alerts remains an open question. That question will test not just Taiwan's military readiness. It will also test how seriously its civilian population takes the threat officials are trying to prepare them for.