With the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Taiwan is concerned about a possible attack on its borders by China. the wall street journal reports that unlike Ukraine, the Taiwanese government is afraid that it will not be able to maintain its communications as well as Ukraine.
Taiwanese infrastructure may struggle to resist
For nearly two months, Ukraine has been resisting the Russian army which is trying by all means to seize power and bring down the government. To wage war in such a way ” modern “as is the case in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the belligerents must absolutely master their communications. For this, they cannot do without the Internet. Ukraine is showing great resistance on this subject and despite the numerous cyberattacks and the deluge of fire, the government of Volodymyr Zelensky has managed to hold on.
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Ukraine has maintained a web connection since the start of the war. Taiwan, a small island southeast of China, could one day experience the same situation as Ukraine. Xi Jinping has been eyeing this little piece of land for many years. The Taiwanese government believes that in the event of a Chinese attack, the network may find it difficult to resist. The war in Ukraine raises the question of the vulnerability of IT infrastructure and Taiwan believes that the fiber optic cables on which the island depends are too exposed.
95% of installations are submarine cables
95% of the infrastructure that allows Taiwan to access the Internet goes under the sea. There are exactly 14 cables that connect the mainland to the island. The government is concerned about this situation and thinks that in the event of a Chinese attack, the cables could be “cut off by submarines or divers and the land stations destroyed by bombardments”.
Such a situation would cause a quasi-general blackout. A few days ago, Ukraine even thwarted a major cyberattack against its power grid. For Victor Zhora, Deputy Director of SSSCIP (State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection), “Ukraine is the site of the first cyberwar in history”.
Taiwan is not the only country to be worried. Japan also expressed its apprehension. Like Taiwan, Japan is highly dependent on submarine cables and has only two ground stations. In general, the Asia-Pacific region is affected by this problem. Taiwan is therefore trying to find solutions to anticipate a possible conflict with China. The country’s government will work with Alphabet and Meta to connect the island to the United States and the Philippines with a new submarine cable. New ground stations could also see the light of day.