[CORRECTED COPY] The Daily-Ish Update

Coverage: last 72 hours

• Taiwan tested degraded civilian communications during Han Kuang-linked resilience drills. On August 10, Taiwan conducted a 30-minute air-defense and urban-resilience exercise across seven central jurisdictions—Taichung, Chiayi City, Miaoli, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin and Chiayi counties—incorporating alarm transmission, evacuation and sheltering, traffic control and disaster response. The National Communications Commission simultaneously simulated mobile-network congestion by reducing mobile data service while retaining voice and SMS. The exercise is part of the first full integration of Taiwan’s Urban Resilience exercises with the live-force Han Kuang drills; a corresponding northern Taiwan network-degradation drill is scheduled for August 13.
  Sources: Taiwan All-out Defense Mobilization Agency (All-out Defense Mobilization); Taipei Times (Taipei Times)

• Taiwan rehearsed recovery of troops and armored vehicles following a chemical-weapons attack. On August 9, forces on Taiwan’s east coast conducted a nuclear, biological and chemical decontamination drill during Han Kuang, simulating a chemical attack and processing soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles through decontamination procedures intended to return them rapidly to combat. (Reuters)
  Source: Reuters (Reuters)

• Taiwan publicly displayed a new class of domestically built medium-size one-way attack drone for the first time at Han Kuang. Two fixed-wing, propeller-driven aircraft were employed during an August 8 littoral-defense drill at Tsoying. Taiwanese military officials described them as locally built “medium-size suicide drones”; the Navy said the Armaments Bureau had provided the aircraft for testing. The pair loitered for about 30 minutes without conducting a strike, and the Navy declined to disclose specifications. Their appearance comes as Taiwan pursues a major expansion of indigenous unmanned-system production and procurement. (Business Insider)
  Source: Business Insider (Business Insider)

• The Pentagon publicly centered its Indo-Pacific posture on “deterrence by denial” along the First Island Chain. Speaking in Manila on August 10, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby said the United States was “digging in” rather than disengaging from Asia and described the desired posture as deterrence by denial along the chain extending through Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo. Colby also pressed regional allies and partners to assume greater responsibility for their own defense, describing the U.S. objective as “partners, not protectorates.” The Philippines was the first stop on a trip also scheduled to include Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia. (Reuters)
  Source: Reuters (Reuters)

• Taiwan’s senior representative in Japan boycotted Nagasaki’s August 9 atomic-bomb memorial over Taiwan’s diplomatic seating status. Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office chief Lee Yi-yang and two deputies declined to attend after Taiwan’s assigned seats were placed outside the area reserved for diplomatic missions; a lower-ranking official attended instead. Lee’s office accused Nagasaki of accepting Beijing’s position denying Taiwanese statehood. Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki rejected that characterization and said the city continued to regard Taiwan as an important partner. Lee had attended Hiroshima’s August 6 ceremony, where Taiwan was seated with other foreign representatives. (AP News)
  Source: Associated Press (AP News)

• It became known on August 10 that the FCC is drafting another restriction on Chinese technology entering U.S. supply chains. The Federal Communications Commission is preparing a ban on imports of new models of Chinese data-center components, following earlier measures against new Chinese drone, router, inverter and robot models and moves to prevent Chinese laboratories from conducting U.S. device-certification testing. China responded to the broader FCC and U.S. trade measures earlier in August by tightening export controls on U.S.-bound drones and technology and sanctioning a U.S. testing and certification company. (Reuters)
  Source: Reuters (Reuters)

• House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar pressed the Commerce Department to enforce controls intended to prevent sanctioned Chinese firms from obtaining advanced logic chips through intermediaries. His previously unreported letter, disclosed August 10, urged enforcement of a January 2025 rule requiring chip manufacturers to scrutinize orders that could involve front companies. The rule followed the discovery of TSMC-manufactured chips ordered by Chinese designer Sophgo inside Huawei AI processors. Moolenaar warned that weak enforcement could permit a repeat of that pathway. (Reuters)
  Source: Reuters (Reuters)

• Typhoon Dolphin disrupted transportation and economic activity across eastern China after making landfall in Zhejiang on August 9. Dolphin came ashore with maximum sustained winds of about 151 km/h before weakening, while its remnants brought flooding to Shanghai and heavy rain across Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong. Shanghai’s two airports canceled 943 flights on August 10, reducing capacity by nearly 40 percent, while authorities reported widespread street flooding. Beijing also raised torrential-rain warnings as the system’s moisture moved north. (Reuters)
  Source: Reuters (Reuters)

• Taiwan’s cabinet is preparing a roughly 16 percent increase in defense-related spending for 2027. Plans disclosed August 9 call for total spending of more than NT$1.1 trillion, approximately US$31 billion, marking the first time the total would exceed NT$1 trillion and keeping spending above 3 percent of GDP. The figure includes the defense ministry as well as coast guard, veterans and special-project funding. The cabinet is scheduled to review and unveil the proposal on August 20, with detailed allocations still subject to final approval. (Reuters)
  Source: Reuters (Reuters)

This update was generated using artificial intelligence, which can make mistakes.

The use of a source in this update does not reflect endorsement of that source’s position or credibility, only its part in the ongoing national security discussion