By AFP | 2025-09-24

HSINCHU, Taiwan -- Taiwanese space chief Wu Jong-shinn says the "clock is ticking" for the democratic island to launch its own satellites to secure internet and phone services during a potential conflict with China.

The island faces the constant threat of an invasion by Beijing, which claims the island is part of its territory and in recent years has intensified military pressure.

Taiwan needs 150 of its own low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for "basic communication resilience" in case the subsea telecom cables connecting the island with the rest of the world are damaged or cut, Wu told AFP in an interview.

It currently has none.

"We need to build up our own technology. But as you know... the clock is ticking," said Wu, director general of Taiwan Space Agency.

"We need to speed up."

Taiwanese authorities have already seen what happens when subsea cables are disconnected.

In February 2023, two telecom lines serving Taiwan's outlying Matsu archipelago were severed, disrupting communications for weeks.

Taiwan plans to launch the first of six LEO satellites 600km above the planet in 2027 as part of its Beyond 5G LEO Satellite program.

US officials have previously cited 2027 as a possible timeline for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Global partners

In the meantime, Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom is striking deals with satellite companies around the world to provide backup telecommunications for the island in case of a war or natural disaster.

Taiwan has signed a multimillion-dollar deal with European company Eutelsat, the world's second largest operator of LEO satellites.

Eutelsat has more than 600 satellites, following its 2023 merger with British firm OneWeb.

"We're developing our own technology ... it takes a while, but we can leverage the commercial resources to get us to have this communication resilience," Wu said.

Eutelsat's satellites are not enough and other providers are needed, he said.

Taiwan has partnered with US company Astranis and SES of Luxembourg, and is in talks with Amazon's Kuiper and Canada's Telesat.

Eutelsat's satellite system was reportedly used in a Taiwanese disaster for the first time in 2024 when a deadly 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the east coast and knocked out communications.

'We can't rely on one side'

Taiwan is light-years behind the the US and Chinese space programs.

The rival superpowers have plowed billions of dollars sending astronauts into orbit and launching thousands of satellites.

Taiwan has seven meteorological satellites and one optical remote sensing satellite in orbit, and hopes to have "more than 20" by around 2031, Wu said.

It plans to launch a second optical remote sensing satellite in November from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a SpaceX rocket.

Taiwan will have its own rockets and launch site in the next decade, said Wu.

When it comes to communication satellites, however, some question the economic sense of countries developing their own networks when commercial options are available.

"If you want this to work, you need a large number of them in low-Earth orbit for that continuous coverage," said Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist and cosmologist at Australian National University.

"You have to be committed to this long-term operation, but also then you need to maintain it. Starlink works because they are de-orbiting their satellites every three years, putting up a new one."

It will be "dangerous" for Taiwan to rely only on foreign satellite operators for phone and internet signal during a war, Taiwanese analyst Cathy Fang said.

Taiwan has learned lessons from Ukraine, where Starlink has been a vital communication tool for Ukrainian forces fighting Moscow's troops.

Starlink CEO Elon Musk has admitted blocking a Ukraine attack on Russian warships by turning off internet access to the system.

"We can't just rely on one side," Fang, a policy analyst at the government-backed Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology, told AFP.

"We need to cultivate our industry."