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Taiwan just tested a part of wartime survival that rarely makes a dramatic headline: how a country keeps functioning when the mobile network still works, only much more slowly. During the Han Kuang exercise, authorities deliberately throttled mobile internet for the first time. That creates a more realistic crisis than simply shutting everything off. A Chinese campaign could combine missile strikes, cyberattacks, satellite interference, power disruption, selective bandwidth pressure, and a flood of disinformation. The resulting confusion could become a weapon of its own.

This episode examines how Taiwan is trying to keep trusted orders, emergency services, military communications, and public information moving through that kind of degraded environment. It also looks at the money behind the preparation. Taiwan's 2027 defense budget is reportedly set to rise 16 percent, while President Lai Ching-te wants defense spending to reach 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2030. The key question is where that money goes: mobile air defenses, coastal weapons, drones, secure communications, ammunition, fuel distribution, and rapid runway repair all compete for priority.

Across the strait, China is building the capabilities designed to shorten Taiwan's decision window and push allied forces farther away. Hypersonic and anti-ship weapons can complicate intervention even when the advertised performance exceeds what a wartime kill chain can reliably deliver. Delay itself has strategic value. Beijing wants Taiwan isolated and disoriented before outside support can arrive. Taipei's network test is part of a wider effort to prevent that rapid collapse.

The technology fight is spreading well beyond the island. Washington is under new pressure to stop advanced chips from reaching sanctioned Chinese companies through distributors, affiliates, cloud services, and other indirect channels. Beijing has its own leakage problem, with reports that officials and contractors sold sensitive government information for profit. Advanced hardware controls and personnel security now sit inside the same contest over national power.

We also unpack China's economic squeeze. Consumer inflation slowed, pork prices fell sharply, and producer costs remained elevated. Chinese factories face weak pricing power at home while trade volumes remain enormous abroad. US container imports hit their fourth-highest monthly level on record in July, showing how supply chains reroute around tariffs instead of simply disappearing. Add a revealing Taiwan-Japan protocol clash at the Nagasaki memorial and confident state messaging about artificial intelligence and manufacturing, and the picture becomes clear: China is projecting momentum while its neighbors and trading partners build defenses against the very capacity Beijing celebrates.

For a fast, sharp guide to Taiwan security, Han Kuang, Chinese military pressure, AI chips, export controls, trade, inflation, and Beijing's domestic narrative, press play.

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Get the daily intelligence brief Ryan and Glenn read covering Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, the Middle East, geopolitics, sanctions, military and intel operations. Save a few hours of your time getting ahead of the news cycle at restrictedhandling.com.