Benjamin Jensen, Erica Lonergan, and Kathleen McInnis
Recent military exercises and doctrine suggest the leading war plan for Beijing to compel Taiwan is a joint blockade. This plan envisions operations ranging from gray zone quarantines to more traditional protracted blockades that isolate Taipei and shift the balance of risk to U.S. and Japanese forces while setting conditions for follow-on military operations ranging from coercive firepower strikes to full-scale invasion.
A critical element of China’s strategy will be implemented in the cyber and space domains in peacetime. This demands sustained U.S. efforts to constrain China’s ability to harness commercial cyber and space resources before conflict begins. By targeting these networks—both physical and virtual—on which China depends for intelligence, communications, and operational reach, the United States and its allies can blunt Beijing’s coercive potential before a crisis erupts through implementing a deterrence-by-denial strategy.
Cyber and Space Capabilities in a Joint Blockade
A blockade is an age-old military concept for coordinating operations in military domains with diplomacy and economic statecraft to strangle an adversary. We use the term blockade in a broad sense, rather than the international legal definition. By isolating the enemy, including disrupting supply chains needed to generate combat power, a state can shape the strategic environment before and during protracted conflict.
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