ABSTRACT
The relevance of cyberspace and the cyber domain in cross-Strait relations has increased in line with China's information-driven military modernisation and the proliferation of information and communication technology. Probing and intruding into Taiwanese networks is a now mainstay of Chinese peacetime operations to ‘prepare the battlefield.’ The difficulty of keeping important critical infrastructure systems secure from Chinese cyber-attacks has become vital for Taiwan to reduce China's coercive potential against the island nation. President Tsai Ing-wen put the improvement of the country's cybersecurity and cyberwarfare capabilities on her agenda during her bid for office. Moreover, she has echoed international consensus by saying that ‘[i]nformation security is national security.’ This focus on Taiwan's cybersecurity and a concurrent buildup of offensive cyber power is sorely needed given the heavy emphasis on information operations in Chinese military-strategic thinking. Building adequate capacities to resist cyber aggression designed to transition to military operations easily is not a simple task, and while attention to the cyber realm has increased during Tsai Ing-wen's administration, openly accessible documents on Taiwan's strategic thinking on cyber operations leave doubt whether its approach will be sufficient in responding to extant and potential cyber intrusions into its government and private networks.
