Taiwan's National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu has warned that China is turning the first island chain into the front line of its expansion, with Taiwan as its primary target for pressure — bad news for regional security, and an opening for Beijing to press forward.

• China is expanding its military rapidly in peacetime and its exercises are becoming increasingly realistic, raising concerns in Taiwan that drills could turn into war.
• Coast guard vessels and survey ships are being used as weapons, cutting undersea cables and intruding into restricted waters around offshore islands, while staying below the threshold of open conflict.
• China is simultaneously increasing pressure on Japan and the Philippines, and has deployed more than a hundred warships across the Sea of Japan, the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the Western Pacific — seen as the largest naval mobilisation since the Second World War.
• The drills focus on blocking US forces from entering the region, which amounts to rehearsing action against Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines at the same time.
• Taiwan continues to invest in defence and military reform, and stresses that "surrender is never an option."

Outlook: Taiwan will call on democratic countries to build sufficient collective deterrence before authoritarian expansion advances any further.