Taiwan is speeding up plans to make sure it can keep getting fuel and other vital supplies if China tries to block its ports by sea, according to a New York Times report published July 25, 2026, by Chris Buckley. The report explains how Taiwan's government is preparing for a situation that defense planners think is China's most likely move short of a full-scale invasion: a maritime blockade.

A maritime blockade is when a country uses its navy and air force to stop ships from entering or leaving another country's ports. It does not require China to seize any territory. That is what makes it attractive to Beijing and so hard for Taiwan to defend against. The Taipei Times pointed this out in a May 2026 editorial. About 95% of the fossil fuel Taiwan uses is imported, according to the Japan Times, which means almost all of the island's energy arrives by ship.

Taiwan's military has been watching this threat for years. Taiwan's National Defense Report 2025, published October 12, 2025, looks at simulated blockades targeting Taiwan's energy supply and the waters around it. The 2023 version of the same report said Taiwan must prepare "all contingent measures" to respond to a Chinese blockade. As far back as 2008, the report described a scenario in which China could use its navy and air force to carry out "partial blockade operations" against Taiwan's key ports and trade routes. A full blockade, Taiwan said in October 2024, would count as an act of war.

The planning has become more specific. In April 2026, Taiwan's military ran the Han Kuang 42 exercises, which are war games played on computers rather than in the field. These included scenarios where Chinese forces prepared for blockade operations while Taiwan's armed forces responded with part of their navy and air force. In April 2023, Taiwan's drills focused on breaking through a blockade and setting up intelligence-sharing with the Five Eyes alliance, a partnership among the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

A simulated Chinese blockade conducted in 2025 identified Singapore as a possible source of emergency supplies, Reuters reported on August 8, 2025. Another Reuters report, published July 3, 2026, looked at Taiwan's planning for a compound crisis: a blockade combined with an earthquake, sabotage, and invasion all at once. The US and its allies have also been making their own plans and deepening military cooperation for a possible Chinese blockade or invasion of Taiwan, Reuters reported on July 25, 2025.

Think of Taiwan's situation like an island that gets almost all its food delivered by boat. If someone stops the boats, the island goes hungry fast. For Taiwan, the "food" is energy. A blockade would try to cripple Taiwan by cutting off trade, especially fuel imports, and would target Taiwan's energy terminals and fuel supplies, according to CSIS, a research organization in Washington. Taiwan has plans to restart old coal-fired power plants if a blockade happens, Reuters reported in October 2024. Taiwan's emergency laws require its economic ministry to prepare backup measures covering ships, aircraft, repair shops, equipment, and workers.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs has pushed back on foreign news reports saying Taiwan keeps low supplies of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which is natural gas cooled into liquid form so it can be stored and shipped. In a news release on April 15, 2026, titled "Natural Gas Dispatches Has Been Well Managed," the ministry addressed those claims directly, but it did not reveal specific inventory numbers or storage targets.

On the military side, the National Defense Report 2025 says Taiwan is mass-producing nine types of precision missiles as part of a plan running from 2022 to 2026. The 2023 version of the report said this plan was aimed at improving Taiwan's ability to control the sea and counter a blockade.

The bigger picture is that Taiwan is preparing across multiple fronts, and its allies are doing the same, against a threat China has not carried out yet but has clearly built its military posture around. The number that matters most is 95%, Taiwan's dependency on imported fossil fuel. Every backup plan Taiwan makes, from restarting old coal plants to finding new supply routes through places like Singapore, is an attempt to buy time against that dependency. Whether those plans would hold up under real pressure is something no simulation has answered for sure. But the planning has moved from theory to something much more concrete.