Taiwan endured a year-long intensified cyber offensive from China in 2025, that targeted the government and critical infrastructure — with an increasing focus on the energy and hospital sectors, according to a Taiwan government analysis published this week.
Cyberattacks from China rose 6% compared to 2024, the National Security Bureau analysis concluded. Every major sector saw intrusion attempts from “China’s cyber army,” with 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day.
The attacks ranged from ransomware attacks attempting to steal data from hospitals and sell it on the dark web, to more politically-oriented missions.
“China’s cyberattacks have been conducted in conjunction with political and military coercive actions,” the bureau wrote. “In 2025, relevant hacking and intrusion operations against Taiwan demonstrated a certain extent of correlation with the joint combat readiness patrols carried out by the People’s Liberation Army. In addition, China would ramp up hacking activities during Taiwan’s major ceremonies, the issuances of important government statements, or overseas visits by high-level Taiwanese officials.”
Beijing considers Taiwan its territory, and U.S. military officials have for years warned of a possible pending Chinese invasion of the island, with predictions that 2027 could be the pivotal year.
China deployed a variety of hacking techniques in 2025, but exploitation of software and hardware vulnerabilities factored into more than half of the operations, according to Taiwan.
Last year’s revelations about Chinese infiltration of major telecommunications providers extended into Taiwan, with hackers targeting telecom networks there to get into sensitive and backup communications links, the bureau wrote.
“The hacking activities were also extended to upstream, midstream, and downstream suppliers in the semiconductor and defense sectors,” the bureau said. “Those campaigns sought to steal advanced technologies, industrial plans, and decision-making intelligence.”
The U.S. government should fortify Taiwan against China’s cyber-enabled economy warfare (CEEW), Jack Burnham, a senior research analyst in the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in response to the Taiwan report.
“As Beijing continues to target Taiwan across the cyber domain, the United States should prepare to counter a Chinese CEEW campaign aimed at Taipei,” he wrote. “Washington should strengthen its efforts to work against a potential blockade by practicing convoy operations, pursuing a regional energy stockpile, assisting in strengthening the resilience of Taiwan’s critical infrastructure by deploying technical advisors, and signaling its resolve to deter Beijing well in advance of a potential crisis.”
China routinely denies all hacking allegations, and has leveled its own accusations of hacking malfeasance at Taiwan.