Evening Edition: What A Chinese Blockade Of Taiwan Would Mean

The Fox News Rundown

FOX News Podcasts

News, Daily News, Politics

3.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A new war games study of China says Beijing doesn't need to invade Taiwan to bring it to its knees. A cyber-enabled economic siege and a blockade of shipping routes targeting Taiwan's energy imports could do it in just weeks with massive consequences for the world's economy. FOX's John Saucier speaks with Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, senior director of Foundation for the Defense of Democracies' Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI), who breaks down the threat and suggests what the United States could do to counter such an attack. Click Here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Kennedy. I'm Bill Hemmer. I'm Harris Faulkner. And this is the Fox News rundown.
0:08.4	Tuesday, November 18th, 2025. I'm John Sassier. It is no secret at all that China wants control of Taiwan.
0:17.3	But invading the island might be a very messy affair for the Chinese. So instead, what if they could slowly strangle it into submission using political, social, and energy pressure?
0:27.7	China practicing diplomatic, economic, lawfare kind of pressure campaign enhanced by cyber and influence operations and even military faints. And what they're trying
0:39.2	to do is put this stress on Taiwan so that their societal resilience collapses. This is the Fox News
0:46.2	Rundown, evening edition. Very interesting new report out by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, where this past summer, they teamed up with Taiwan Center for Innovative Democracy and Sustainability at the National Changchee University to conduct some war games.
1:04.6	But this battle, rather than the idea of shooting missiles and landing troops in Taiwan looked at the scenario in which Beijing
1:11.0	throttled Taiwan's fuel imports through administrative slowdowns, cyber attacks and
1:15.5	disinformation, all while maintaining plausible deniability. Taiwan supplies crucial semiconductor chips
1:21.6	to the world, but if the island has to import energy resources to keep the lights on of those
1:26.3	plants, if China could shut off Taiwan's
1:28.5	power, they could also control the manufacturing abilities and cause a global supply crisis.
1:33.4	What I did as an admiral on active duty was something called the most dangerous scenario,
1:37.6	that cross-strait invasion. And we looked at something we call the most likely scenario,
1:41.1	this kind of cyber-enabled economic warfare. Our guest today is retired rear admiral, Mark Montgomery.
1:46.4	He's a senior fellow of the Foundation for Defensive Democracies.
1:49.7	Why would China do this?
1:52.0	China wants to integrate Taiwan.
1:55.7	They believe Taiwan is an inextricable part of China.
1:59.3	You know, they have a one-China policy, and they don't care how part of China. They have a one China policy.
2:02.1	And they don't care how they do it.
2:04.2	They will coerce Taiwan into coming back in.
	...

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