Taiwan has conducted tabletop exercises simulating a Chinese-imposed maritime quarantine, officials in Taipei disclosed on Thursday, as the island’s armed forces deployed newly acquired M1A2T Abrams tanks in a five-day island-wide combat readiness drill. The simulation, described by Deputy Secretary-General of the National Security Council Lii Wen, envisaged a scenario in which Beijing, without declaring a full blockade, requires all vessels using Taiwanese ports to file declarations through China’s customs system and reserves the right to inspect or detain ships under the pretext of law enforcement. The exercise involved eleven ministries and tested mechanisms for alerting commercial shipping, monitoring energy and survival-goods stockpiles, and conducting emergency procurement. The revelation came on the fourth day of the “Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise,” which saw army engineers erect three-layer roadblocks near Taoyuan International Airport and combined-arms units secure tactical positions along County Road 110.

Beijing’s coastguard has meanwhile conducted what it calls a “special maritime traffic law enforcement operation” in waters east of Taiwan, a move that Washington, London, Paris and Berlin jointly criticised as threatening regional stability and freedom of navigation. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun rejected the concerns, describing the patrols as a legitimate exercise of jurisdiction and a necessary response to maritime boundary negotiations between Japan and the Philippines that overlap with Taiwan’s claims. Viewed from European capitals, the coastguard deployments represent an expansion of grey-zone pressure that complicates the security environment for international shipping. Taipei’s tabletop quarantine scenario directly addresses the kind of incremental economic coercion that such patrols could enable.

In a parallel naval dimension, China’s aircraft carrier Liaoning concluded 40 days of exercises in the South China Sea and western Pacific, with the People’s Liberation Army Navy accusing Japanese ships and aircraft of “close-range tracking, surveillance, harassment, and provocation.” Tokyo’s Joint Staff dismissed the claims as “not factual,” stating its forces conducted professional vigilance and surveillance. The exchange underscores a deepening friction between China and Japan, aggravated by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s suggestion last November that Japan might intervene militarily in any Chinese attempt to take Taiwan. Beijing has since advised its citizens to avoid travel to Japan and imposed trade restrictions, while Tokyo confirmed on Wednesday that China had detained two Japanese nationals on suspicion of smuggling rare earth minerals.

President Lai Ching-te, addressing the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee, said China’s authoritarian expansionism is altering the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific, and that strengthening self-defence capabilities is not a provocation but a necessary safeguard for democracy. He cited the G7 leaders’ joint statement opposing unilateral changes to the status quo by force or coercion, and pledged Taiwan would uphold collective defence and burden-sharing with like-minded countries. The combat readiness exercise is set to conclude on Friday, while the first domestically built submarine, the Narwhal, remains on track for delivery in the second half of 2026, and an offshore drone battalion will soon be deployed in Penghu to bolster early warning.