Yurii PoitaHead of Asia section of NGRN Yurii Poita participated in the closed-door trial sessions of KTT’s Popular Science Wargame, organized by Taiwanese PLA expert K. Tristan Tang.
The wargame simulated a PLA attack on Taiwan, including a naval blockade, the capture of remote islands, missile and air strikes against military targets and critical infrastructure, followed by a beach landing and urban combat operations.
The Taiwan team comprised 16 officials representing roles from the president to heads of key ministries, intelligence agencies, and military commanders. Their task was to organize the island’s defense under conditions of significant resource constraints: a smaller number of troops compared to China, slow domestic weapon production and mobilization of new forces, partial destruction of Taiwan’s infrastructure at the onset of hostilities, no immediate support from the U.S. (relying solely on domestic capabilities), external supply blockades, and limited ability to strike mainland China due to insufficient missile range and quantity.
Within these constraints, the Taiwan team aimed to use available resources as efficiently as possible, including taking proactive measures such as missile strikes against China’s amphibious forces to disrupt or delay landings, naval operations targeting Chinese maritime forces, and efforts to breach the blockade.
The primary objective of the wargame was not to achieve victory, but to train the team in employing a variety of operational means and ensuring effective coordination across different government and military structures, including inter-ministerial collaboration, joint operations among military branches, and coordination across regional commands. The exercise also highlighted several structural and operational weaknesses in Taiwan’s defense, which limited initiative and overall defensive effectiveness, that Taiwan should pay attention to.
