Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense has issued a report highlighting intensified preparations by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to impose a blockade on the island. The report, titled the "2026 China Military Power Report," was submitted to Taiwan’s legislature this week alongside the island’s five-year force development plan and proposed defense budget for the coming year.

According to the report, recent PLA military exercises have increasingly concentrated on establishing joint blockades and controlling Taiwan’s external air and sea routes. The drills have focused on maritime and air blockades or quarantines, coordinated firepower strikes, achieving battlefield superiority, and amphibious landing operations. These activities are intended to enhance the PLA’s capability to target Taiwan and execute anti-access and area-denial measures aimed at deterring potential foreign intervention.

Taiwan has long been considered by Beijing as a province of China, with Chinese authorities not ruling out the use of force to achieve reunification. While most countries, including the United States, do not officially recognize Taiwan as an independent state, Washington maintains a policy opposing any forceful change of status and is legally committed to supplying Taiwan with defensive weapons.

The report also notes increased PLA activity in the surrounding region, including more frequent incursions of Chinese warplanes and drones across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, a de facto maritime boundary. Chinese naval vessels have also approached waters near Taiwan’s contiguous zone, which extends 24 nautical miles from the island’s coast.

In response, Taiwan’s military is working to strengthen its command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C5ISR) networks. It is also integrating artificial intelligence-assisted systems to support decision-making processes. Taiwan has begun practical testing of how to counter a PLA blockade, prominently featuring such scenarios in its annual Han Kuang military exercises.

During this year’s Han Kuang drills, a maritime quarantine and blockade scenario took center stage for the first time. These exercises simulated a blockade of Taiwan’s western ports and shipping lanes, forcing critical supplies and foreign aid to enter via an alternative “strategic lifeline” along the island’s east coast. The drills involved coordinating navy and coastguard vessels, including a Yung Feng-class minesweeper tasked with clearing shipping routes, and protecting merchant vessels ferrying vital goods. Ground forces secured eastern ports and mobilized civilian trucks and equipment to transport supplies inland. Other parts of the exercises tested relocating defense production facilities after an attack and employing civilian factories to manufacture kamikaze drones.

Despite these developments, the report concluded that the PLA’s current capability to conduct a full-scale amphibious assault on Taiwan remains inadequate.