VIGIL CONSILIUMSearch
Context. Not headlines.
Conflict coverage · Taiwan Strait

The throttling exercise repeats across northern Taiwan

13 August 2026Northern Taiwan

MilitaryPoliticalCivil resilience and societal pressure

The second round ran between 14:30 and 15:00 on 13 August 2026 across seven northern jurisdictions — Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, and Hsinchu and Yilan counties — under the same National Communications Commission instruction as the 10 August round, and on the last full day of Han Kuang. Mobile web traffic was slowed to 256 Kbps, leaving little beyond text usable; video, streaming, video calling and large transfers were the practical casualties. The same exclusions applied: voice, 110 and 119, SMS, cell-broadcast alerts, fixed broadband and Wi-Fi, and military and dedicated networks. Fourteen cities and counties were covered across the two rounds. President Lai Ching-te publicly apologised for the inconvenience and described the drill as necessary. Areas outside the two named groups — including Kaohsiung, Tainan, Hualien, Taitung and Pingtung — were not part of either window.

Why it mattersRecorded separately from the 10 August round because the geography, the date and the population affected all differ, and because the second round is what makes the first a policy rather than a one-off. The jurisdiction lists are held in full here so that any later summary can be checked against them: the recurring misreading of this event is that Taiwan "switched off the internet", and the only durable defence against that is a record showing two dated, bounded regional windows and a list of what kept running. The 9 August brief named the observable as what the government would report about which components were actually exercised. This is that report, for one component.
Confidence: HighSources: National Communications Commission — Taiwan↗ · Associated Press↗ · Central News Agency / Focus Taiwan↗ · Taipei Times↗MethodologyCorrections

See this event in the timeline Interactive: select this record and follow what connects to it.

Related structure

2 records that this event names, or that name it. Every one is an explicit reference in a published record — nothing here is inferred from subject matter.

Actors

Actor records this event names.

Where this fits

This is one entry in the Taiwan Strait timeline. The full Key Events surface carries every dated turning point with its filters and its essential subset, and this event in place shows what came before and after it. How Vigil grades, dates and sources its claims is set out in the methodology.