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Taiwan has quietly shifted from polite diplomacy to blunt preparation, rolling out large-scale military and civil-defense exercises across major cities including Kaohsiung, Taichung and Taipei as part of this year’s Han Kuang war games. The drills are not theater; they are a sober response to an increasingly aggressive Beijing that has tested the island’s resolve time and again. Taiwan’s leaders are showing the spine too many in Washington seem to have misplaced, and that resolve deserves America’s full-throated backing.
What Americans are seeing in Kaohsiung is more than parades of hardware — it’s whole-of-society defense: urban resilience exercises, air-raid drills and simulations designed to keep civilian life functioning under attack. Officials are even planning temporary mobile internet shutdowns during drills to simulate electromagnetic and communications warfare and teach citizens how to navigate a crisis without instant connectivity. This is the kind of gritty, practical preparation that deterrence requires, not the hollow press releases Washington too often serves up.
Taiwan’s armed forces have also sharpened their maritime and anti-submarine capabilities south of the island, practicing to detect and deter the very kind of submarine activity the People’s Liberation Army has been increasing in the region. These naval and air-force rehearsals, staged near Kaohsiung and the Penghu islands, send a message: Taiwan will fight for its survival and train to make any attempted blockade or invasion costly. If we understand anything from recent conflicts, realistic training saves lives and keeps wars short.
China’s response — more live-fire drills and saber-rattling around the Taiwan Strait — confirms why Taipei is not taking chances. Beijing’s pattern is unmistakable: pressure, intimidation and the constant rehearsal of aggression that raises the risk of miscalculation. That run-up should alarm every American who values freedom, because if the free world allows bullying to stand, it becomes the new normal.
So what should the United States do? First, stop treating Taiwan like a bargaining chip and start treating it like the democracy and strategic partner it is. Equip Taiwanese forces, accelerate interoperability, and make clear that the cost of aggression will be far higher than any regime in Beijing imagines; half measures and wishful thinking will only invite catastrophe. Our security and honor are bound up with theirs — weakness does not keep peace, it invites war.
Finally, credit must go to the Taiwanese people for embracing the hard work of resilience while elites debate nuance in diplomatic backrooms. Their whole-of-society approach — mobilizing reserves, civil defense and local governments — is a model of patriotic seriousness that Americans should admire and emulate. Washington’s leaders must match that seriousness with action, not lectures, because freedom won’t be defended by speeches alone.
