By Yimou Lee
TAIPEI, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan’s key infrastructure from hospitals to banks rose 6% in 2025 from the previous year to an average of 2.63 million attacks a day, the island’s National Security Bureau said, adding some were synchronised with military drills in “hybrid threats” to paralyse the island.
Taiwan has in recent years complained about what it sees as China’s “hybrid warfare” – from daily military drills near the island to disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks – as Beijing ramps up military and political pressure on the democratically governed island to force Taipei to accept its claims of sovereignty.
The average number of daily attacks in 2025 jumped 113% from 2023 when the bureau first began publishing such data, with sectors such as energy, emergency rescue and hospitals seeing the sharpest year‑on‑year increases, according to a report by the National Security Bureau on Sunday.
“Such a trend indicates a deliberate attempt by China to compromise Taiwan’s crucial infrastructure comprehensively and to disrupt or paralyse Taiwanese government and social functions,” the report said.
The bureau said China’s “cyber army” timed operations to coincide with military and political coercion. For example, China launched 40 “joint combat readiness patrols” by sending military planes and ships close to Taiwan and cyberattacks escalated on 23 of those occasions.
China also ramped up hacking activities during politically sensitive moments such as when President Lai Ching-te marked his first year in office with a speech in May and when Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim spoke at a meeting with lawmakers at the European Parliament in November.
“China’s moves align with its strategic need to employ hybrid threats against Taiwan during both peacetime and wartime,” the report said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.
China routinely denies being involved in hacking attacks.
Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taipei strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
The Taiwanese report said the Chinese attacks included distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks designed to disrupt Taiwan’s daily life as well as man-in-the-middle attacks to steal information and penetrate the island’s telecommunications networks.
Science parks that anchor Taiwan’s semiconductor industry—home to firms such as TSMC—have also been prime targets, with attackers employing a range of techniques to steal advanced technologies.
The move was “an attempt to support China’s self-reliance in technology and economic development and prevent China from being put in a disadvantaged position in the U.S.-China technology competition,” the report said.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee; additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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