In recent years, Taiwan wargames have become standard practice from Capitol Hill to Wall Street. The exercises model pathways China might pursue to achieve its desired end goal: bringing the island democracy, which Beijing still considers to be part of its territory, under its political control.

Over the years, such wargames have played out different military scenarios, from a Chinese blockade of the island to a full amphibious invasion, and assessed the capacity of Taiwan and the United States and its allies to respond.

In recent years, Taiwan wargames have become standard practice from Capitol Hill to Wall Street. The exercises model pathways China might pursue to achieve its desired end goal: bringing the island democracy, which Beijing still considers to be part of its territory, under its political control.

Over the years, such wargames have played out different military scenarios, from a Chinese blockade of the island to a full amphibious invasion, and assessed the capacity of Taiwan and the United States and its allies to respond.

But these games tend to focus primarily on hard power. And in recent years, when Chinese President Xi Jinping has spoken about so-called reunification, he has repeatedly said that although China does not rule out using military force to achieve that end goal, it seeks a “peaceful reunification.” Thus, many Taiwan experts contend that while the island must prepare itself for a military confrontation, not enough attention has been paid to likelier scenarios in which Beijing weaponizes nonmilitary “gray zone” tactics.

A recent tabletop exercise, the results of which were first shared with Foreign Policy, was designed to focus on those overlooked areas: specifically, how China could use economic and cyber-coercion to compel Taiwan into reunification.

“If reintegration is central to Xi’s ideological and geopolitical goals, then prioritizing economic and cyber-coercion over military confrontation seems the most logical to me. It’s aimed at weakening Taiwan, forcing its political submission while avoiding global escalation—at present, it seems like a scenario that’s sort of already underway,” said Craig Singleton, the senior director for China at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington-based think........

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