【Taiwanology Ep.50】What Taiwan’s Largest Drills Reveal About Its Defense Strategy

Taiwan’s largest military exercise, the Han Kuang drills, now includes a supermarket chain helping with evacuation plans. With China’s military pressure near-constant, Taiwan is expanding its defense strategy to include asymmetric warfare, civil defense, and psychological readiness. Silva Shih, CommonWealth Magazine's defense reporter, joins us to explain how Taiwan is preparing—and what could still be missing.

- 3:10 Why does Taiwan’s defense conversation feel more urgent this year?
- 8:08 The major trends observed through a PLA activities dashboard
- 14:20 What's new with this year's Han Kuang military drills?
- 19:45 Taiwan’s largest supermarket chain joined the drills. What does that tell us?
- 22:16 How worried should Taiwan be about a blockade or gray-zone harassments?

Host: Kwangyin Liu, Senior Managing Editor of CommonWealth Magazine
Guest: Silva Shih, Senior Managing Editor of CommonWealth Magazine  
Producers: Yayuan Chang, Weiru Wang

＊Check out CommonWealth's PLA activities dashboard: https://www.cw.com.tw/graphics/pla-activities-around-taiwan-en/ 
＊Share your thoughts：bill@cw.com.tw