How a Drone ‘Hellscape’ Might Stop a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan [excerpts from an article pertaining to Ukraine]

"Inspired by Ukraine’s battlefield gains, Taiwan is betting on drones to deter a potential Chinese invasion. ..."


Reporting from Taipei, Taiwan
Aug. 9, 2026
Updated 11:55 a.m. ET
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Inspired by lessons from Ukraine and other recent war zones, Taiwan is now accelerating efforts to put that strategy into practice. ...

Taiwanese officials have noted Ukraine’s drone-driven gains on the battlefield, and they are trying to emulate Ukraine’s David-versus-Goliath approach: using relatively cheap and nimble drones to level the playing field against a much larger adversary. ...

Taiwan has “realized that drones will be important in all the domains, in all the phases,” in a potential war with China, said Mick Ryan, a retired Australian major general who has studied Ukraine and Taiwan.

Ukraine’s recent success at longer-range drone strikes suggests that Taiwan could also attack ships leaving Chinese ports if Beijing launched an amphibious assault, said Mr. Ryan, now a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. ...

“The army’s frontline military operations must undergo a total change from the past,” said Shu Hsiao-Huang, an associate research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei, which is supported by Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. “In the Russia-Ukraine War, if you fire one round, you won’t have a chance to fire a second, if you just stay lined up there without moving on,” he said.

Unlike Ukraine, though, Taiwan lacks the pressure of an actual invasion to mobilize resources and force changes. “It’s very difficult, because they haven’t experienced the crucible of war,” Mr. Shu said. ...

In the first three months of 2026, Taiwan exported drones worth $115 million, exceeding its total drone exports for all of 2025, according to the island’s Ministry of Economic Affairs. The top destination is the Czech Republic, though many of the drones find their way to nearby Ukraine, research shows. ...

***

Chris Buckley, the chief China correspondent for The Times, reports on China and Taiwan from Taipei, focused on politics, social change and security and military issues. 

Amy Chang Chien is a reporter and researcher for The Times in Taipei, covering Taiwan and China. 

A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 9, 2026, Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Taiwan Brone ‘Hellscape’ to Deter Possible Chinese Invasion. 

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