By: Hsiao-Chen Lin
This article originally appeared in Taiwan Insight on July 24, 2025.
In recent weeks, South Asia has reemerged as a strategic flashpoint, offering valuable insights for countries confronting an increasingly assertive China. The latest operation, codenamed Operation Sindoor, revealed Pakistan’s adept use of a Chinese-enabled integrated C4ISR system (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance). By integrating early warning systems, long-range missile targeting, and electronic warfare capabilities into a unified operational concept, Pakistan demonstrated how asymmetric warfare strategies can be harnessed to neutralise more advanced air platforms. While the tactical effectiveness of the operation remains debated, the incident exposes critical vulnerabilities in contested airspace and raises alarms across the broader region.
This evolving scenario also serves as a timely analytical lens through which Taiwan can assess its own strategic vulnerabilities and prepare more robustly for future contingencies in the Indo-Pacific theatre.
Beijing’s Tactical Blueprint: Exporting Integrated Warfare
The core of this tactical architecture lies in its seamless integration. The ZDK-03 provides airborne early warning and target designation, enabling the J-10 fighter to engage with beyond-visual-range precision. This aerial capability is synchronised with the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile system for regional airspace denial and complemented by the PL-15 long-range missile for deep-strike engagements. Collectively, this configuration forms a cohesive strike network designed to disable enemy command-and-control and electronic warfare systems.
This development is far more than a localised South Asian episode; it offers a strategic blueprint with significant implications for Taiwan. China is not merely exporting discrete weapons systems but advancing a replicable and scalable tactical doctrine, grounded in integrated operations and adaptable to various theatres. From the ZDK-03 to the PL-15, this Chinese-assembled air combat architecture demonstrates how Beijing leverages technology and doctrine to reshape regional military dynamics. For Taiwan, this highlights the urgency of deepening joint force integration and modernising its own C4ISR framework in anticipation of similarly networked, multi-domain challenges.
Confronting Encirclement: Taiwan’s Evolving Defence Posture
For Taiwan, the implications are profound. Just as Pakistan employed integrated operational capabilities to challenge Indian air operations, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been methodically building a multilayered anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) framework across the Taiwan Strait. Beijing’s accompanying legal manoeuvre, which seeks to redefine the Taiwan Strait from international waters into a regime resembling internal waters, directly challenges established norms under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Although the term “internal waters” is recognised in maritime law, China’s reinterpretation appears intended to erode freedom of navigation and to weaken regional consensus on open sea lanes, advancing its broader territorial objectives.
India and Taiwan, though geographically distant, confront similar strategic challenges. Both face a China proficient in leveraging geographic position, economic coercion, and military modernisation to exert influence. Their respective vulnerabilities, however, differ in nature. India contends with a neighbouring adversary shaped by ideological nationalism and closely aligned with Beijing’s strategic agenda. The recent South Asian escalation highlights how China’s defence exports to Pakistan are part of a more comprehensive effort to reshape regional power dynamics.
Taiwan, in contrast, is dealing with a PLA strategy aimed at comprehensive encirclement. This is manifested through regular military exercises, economic pressure, and cognitive warfare targeting public morale. The goal is to undermine societal cohesion and weaken Taiwan’s deterrence posture through denial strategies.
Resilience at Home: Taiwan’s Strategic Reform Agenda
In response, Taiwan’s leadership has initiated a broad defence reform agenda emphasising national unity and resilience. President Lai Ching-te, through the “Ten Lectures on National Unity” (團結國家十講) series, particularly the lecture focused on defence, designated July as “National Unity Month.” This political initiative is accompanied by practical measures, including nationwide urban resilience drills, expanded reserve force training, and a proposed NT$900 billion (approximately USD 28 billion) special defence budget over six years to enhance surveillance, coastal defence, and cyber capabilities.
On the eve of the August 1 implementation of the US reciprocal tariff policy, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim emphasised that Taiwan’s defence modernisation goes beyond hardware acquisition. Speaking as Taiwan concluded its annual military exercises, she highlighted the need to update doctrine, enhance readiness, and build psychological resilience—key elements of a credible deterrent. “Everything we are doing right now is to prevent such a conflict—not just in 2027, but ever,” she stated. Hsiao noted that Taiwan is urgently investing in self-defence to prevent miscalculation and preserve peace and stability across the Strait. The exercises included enhanced port defences, simulated responses at potential landing sites, and civil defence drills. She reiterated that Taiwan does not seek independence or confrontation, aligning with Washington’s policy of maintaining cross-Strait stability.
Defence Innovation and Societal Readiness
Taiwan’s transition toward a decentralised and adaptive force structure reflects insights drawn from recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. These theatres have demonstrated the effectiveness of distributed operations, drone warfare, and hybrid tactics. The emphasis on civil-military integration in Taiwan aims to close the gap between civilian preparedness and defence capability. By strengthening emergency response systems, supporting local defence industries, and incorporating emerging technologies into military planning, Taiwan is working to develop a defence posture that is both credible and deeply embedded in society.
From New Delhi to Taipei, the broader strategic message is clear. The Indo-Pacific cannot afford disjointed responses in the face of a revisionist China. The United States’ concurrent efforts to restructure economic dependencies, deepen defence-industrial cooperation, and elevate India within global supply chains signify a coordinated regional strategy rather than isolated policy adjustments. Taiwan, observing from the frontline of China’s expansionist calculus, has every reason to interpret these shifts as both opportunity and warning.
Taiwan’s evolving posture, particularly the decisions undertaken in July, reflects a steady recalibration under both external pressure and domestic debate. In an era where deterrence is defined by adaptability, connectivity, and societal readiness, resilience has become the defining attribute of regional security.
Geoeconomics and Realignment in the Supply Chain Era
As the United States gradually implements reciprocal tariff policies, the reconstruction of Indo-Pacific supply chains is progressing from conception to reality. This is not merely an adjustment of trade terms; it marks a redistribution of influence across the global production system. Simultaneously, Washington has introduced a geopolitical dimension by leveraging the Ukraine conflict, setting a timeline for ceasefire, and announcing potential secondary tariffs of up to 500 per cent on countries that continue purchasing Russian energy. These measures carry substantial implications for China and India, both of which maintain considerable dependence on discounted Russian oil.
This dual-track strategy, combining expanded partnership opportunities with elevated penalties for ambiguity, represents a calculated effort to redefine alliances within the Indo-Pacific. For the Indo-Pacific regional actors, this is not simply a matter of technical or economic recalibration. It signals a strategic shift rooted in energy security, geopolitical alignment, and the configuration of supply chains.
For Taiwan, international narratives often portray Chinese military exercises as a sign of looming danger. Yet these manoeuvres also reveal Beijing’s internal apprehensions. They stem from the recognition that a democratically elected leadership is guiding Taiwan ever closer to the strategic core of the Indo-Pacific, while gradually reducing its economic dependency on China. What Beijing claims as a domestic matter has, in Taipei’s strategic vision, become a catalyst for global realignment. The shift of supply chains away from China has been underway for years. Taiwan’s actions represent a conscious and well-coordinated structural repositioning.
Taiwan’s strategic evolution, from a vulnerable frontline to a resilient regional stakeholder, reflects broader transformations unfolding across the Indo-Pacific. Rather than relying solely on external guarantees, Taiwan is investing in its own capabilities, aligning with regional trends, and contributing actively to a more cohesive and enduring Indo-Pacific security architecture.
This is not a reactive adjustment, but a measured recalibration—echoing South Asia’s strategic sobriety and embodied in Taiwan’s steady pursuit of resilience through integration and deterrence.
Hsiao-Chen Lin is a Visiting Fellow at ORF America.