China Steps Up Cyberattacks on Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure, Testing Wartime Readiness

Taiwan said China is launching millions of cyberattacks a day, many tied to military drills, raising fears Beijing is rehearsing digital disruption in a crisis.

Prince, a member of the hacking group Red Hacker Alliance who refused to give his real name, uses a website that monitors global cyberattacks on his computer at their office in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, on Aug. 4, 2020. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

China has dramatically escalated cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, launching an average of 2.63 million attacks per day in 2025, according to a new report by Taiwan’s National Security Bureau. Some of the attacks coincided with Chinese military drills around Taiwan, underscoring what analysts describe as a coordinated campaign to probe Taiwan’s ability to function under crisis or wartime conditions.

The findings, released on Jan. 4, point to a sharp intensification of cyberoperations targeting essential civilian systems—from energy and emergency services to hospitals and telecommunications—raising concerns that Beijing is rehearsing cyberdisruption as part of a broader coercive strategy.

Escalation in Scale and Targeting

According to the bureau’s report, titled “Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025,” the average daily volume of cyberattacks surged by 113 percent compared with 2023, when Taiwan first began publishing such figures.