If China attempts to cut Taiwan off from the world by severing more than a dozen undersea cables that connect it to the internet, large numbers of fast-moving low Earth orbit satellites will be critical to maintaining communications.
In June, Taiwan Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang made a rare trip to Europe, meeting with British satellite provider OneWeb, a fast-growing rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink that already has several hundred satellites delivering services to government and private clients.
Tang also visited Luxembourg-based satellite communications firm SES, which said afterwards it was working with Taiwan and Microsoft to be able to rebuild 5G networks in Taiwan rapidly in a “disaster scenario”.
Following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Starlink satellites were reported to have been critical to maintai