The Only Thing Worse than Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight

Posted: July 13th, 2023

By Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery

Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery is a senior director at the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He directs CSC 2.0, which works to implement the recommendations of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, where he previously served as executive director.

By Emily de La Bruyère

Emily de La Bruyère is senior fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracy with a focus on China policy. She pioneered novel data collection and analysis tools tailored to Beijing’s strategic and institutional structures, and has extensive Chinese language research and program management experience. La Bruyère has testified before the Senate Banking Committee and US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Her work was also the first Western analysis to document Beijing’s China Standards 2035 national plan. She also co-founded Horizon Advisory, a consulting firm focused on the implications of China’s competitive approach to geopolitics.

OPINION — This spring, a delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives visited Taiwan – both as a show of solidarity and to develop responses to Beijing’s aggression. Among their “constructive takeaways” was the need to bring Starlink, a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, to the island.

There’s a clear logic behind this idea: The LEO satellite constellation has been heralded as core to the resilience of both Ukraine’s military forces and national critical infrastructure, in their battle with Russian invaders. It stands to reason that Taiwan would want the same network ready should the People’s Liberation Army seek to claim the island by force. Unfortunately, Beijing is not Moscow. The Chinese Communist Party is prepared to neutralize systems like Starlink.

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