In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities.
This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy.
Some 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan＊s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About a fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and natural gas, which power 85% of the grid and 99% of its road fleet. The vast majority passes through a handful of ports, most facing the coast of mainland China as little as 130 kilometers away.
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