Taiwan’s Han Kuang drills included a simulated air-landing assault on the Penghu Islands and a first-ever throttling drill of mobile Internet in central Taichung to test how communication layers hold up under a Chinese attack or natural disaster.

The throttling exercise focused on reducing non-GBR data speeds while preserving GBR voice services and emergency alerts, using the Cell Broadcast System to bypass the data path for critical notifications.

Public communication ahead of the drill included bilingual alerts and public service messages to minimize panic and teach prioritization of bandwidth for essential services.

Observers say practical takeaways include downloading offline resources, diversifying communication methods (SMS and voice alongside internet apps), relying on fixed lines like Wi‑Fi and landlines, and establishing family crisis protocols.

The exercise underscored a vulnerability in overreliance on constant high-speed connectivity, showing how congestion can create psychological and logistical bottlenecks even without a full blackout.

The drill sought to simulate realistic bandwidth scarcity to teach the public how to adapt during emergencies and reduce panic when networks are stressed.

During the Taichung throttling drill, only basic mobile services remained functional while essential services such as ATMs, traffic signals, landlines, and fixed internet stayed up, with air raid sirens signaling the drill.

Emergency alerts and critical infrastructure continued to operate on separate channels outside the throttled data path, ensuring continued access to ATMs, traffic signals, fixed networks, and landlines.

The legal basis rests on the Telecommunications Management Act, authorizing the NCC to direct QoS adjustments during civil-defense exercises without declaring a state of emergency and marking the first large-scale use of that power.

The exercise aims to bolster resilience against submarine cable disruption and wartime conditions, though critics caution it may not capture the full range of daily dependencies.

A northern-phase throttle is planned for August 13 as part of the broader Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience framework, emphasizing cyber and communications redundancy.

Southern Taiwan was exempted from Phase One to avoid disrupting the stock market, highlighting the challenge of testing fragile economic systems in pre-announced drills.