Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense on August 31 released its 2026 annual report on People's Liberation Army military power, warning that China's armed forces have drawn on battlefield lessons from Ukraine and the Middle East to sharpen their combat readiness and escalate gray zone pressure against Taiwan.
The report, submitted to the Legislative Yuan alongside Taiwan's 2027 defense budget and a five-year force development plan, is organized into four chapters covering the PLA's political and military landscape, weapons acquisition, training and combat capability, and patterns of threat directed at Taiwan.
PLA Drills Integrate Ukraine and Iran War Lessons
The ministry's assessment points to a deliberate and accelerating effort by Chinese military planners to extract tactical lessons from two recent conflicts: the Russia-Ukraine war and the U.S.-Israel-Iran confrontation. From Ukraine, the PLA has studied the mass employment of drone swarms, first-person-view (FPV) attack drones, electronic warfare and counter-drone defense, logistics sustainability under sustained bombardment, and the competition for information dominance.
From the Middle East theater, Chinese analysts drew conclusions about ammunition depletion rates, the limits of air defense interception systems during high-tempo operations, the difficulty of sustaining industrial mobilization, and the fragility of coalition coordination. These lessons, the ministry said, have pushed the PLA to place new emphasis on saturation attacks, long-duration logistical resilience, and command-and-control protection in multi-domain operations.
At the army level, combined-arms brigades have stepped up manned-unmanned teaming drills and electromagnetic countermeasure exercises, while reducing large-scale force concentrations to limit battlefield vulnerability. Amphibious units have incorporated unmanned vehicles into landing exercises. Cross-theater drills now routinely involve civilian roll-on/roll-off cargo vessels for troop and equipment transport, simulating the wartime use of commercial maritime infrastructure.
Coast Guard and Maritime Militia Carry Gray Zone Pressure Closer to Taiwan
Taiwan's defense planners have long monitored China's gray zone activities, but the 2026 report adds new detail on how PLA coast guard forces and maritime militia units are blending enforcement operations with military training. Coast guard units, in coordination with maritime militia, are now conducting exercises spanning maritime law enforcement, target surveillance, gray zone operations, joint blockades, and joint search-and-rescue missions — while also running coordinated enforcement drills alongside PLA Navy vessels.
At sea, the PLA Navy has upgraded training for its carrier strike groups and amphibious assault ship formations, adding modules focused on anti-submarine operations, unmanned surface vessel coordination, and long-range command-and-control. The ministry specifically noted increased anti-drone and saturation-attack defense components in naval drills — a direct adaptation of lessons drawn from drone warfare in Ukraine and the Red Sea.
In the air, the PLA Air Force is conducting red-blue adversarial exercises, multi-aircraft coordination drills, drone swarm scenarios, and maritime-air joint operations. The Rocket Force, Space Force, and Cyberspace units have all aligned their training cycles with the same doctrinal priorities, incorporating artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and cross-domain information support into their readiness exercises.
The ministry's report also highlights the PLA's Joint Logistics Support Force, which is deepening the military-civil fusion framework — integrating civilian transportation networks, labor resources, and supply chains into wartime mobilization planning. The Armed Police, meanwhile, are reinforcing their capacity for emergency response, counter-terrorism, and maritime law enforcement, with exercises using civilian vessels for force projection and logistics support.
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