Another codification of what the Chinese Communist Party has already been doing is discussed in a Taipei Times editorial on “Bejing’s expanding lawfare.” The National Defense Mobilization Law that took effect on October first may not “ensure,” as the Times asserts, “a rapid transition from peacetime to wartime.” But its goal is to facilitate such a transition (October 16, 2026).
The amendment incorporates Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “military-civil fusion” principle into law, and stipulates that once the state initiates national defense mobilization, “the people’s governments at or above the county level may expropriate and requisition civilian resources,” and “all organizations and individuals shall have the obligation to accept the lawful expropriation and requisition of civilian resources.” It massively expands China’s national mobilization, including drafting men aged 18 to 60 and women aged 18 to 55 into the armed forces, and allows it to legally and forcibly seize private property.
The Chinese Communist Party is giving itself a “new” power to seize private property…
Does this mobilization law put Taiwanese companies that are operating on the mainland at risk?
As the new law aims to convert all peacetime resources, including energy, media and cutting-edge technologies, such as drones and artificial intelligence, into wartime supplies under government control, Taiwanese and international firms and assets in China could also be targeted. All cross-strait and cross-border business cooperation, supply chains, data flows and personnel could be incorporated into China’s national mobilization system, transforming them from commercial assets into warfare resources. Taiwan and other democracies should be vigilant and ensure Beijing is not using the law to expand its war preparations from just the military to the entire society.
There’s that word “ensure” again. I agree that “Taiwan must accelerate the enhancement of its national resilience and countermeasure capabilities.” But this would be true even if the Mobilization Law had not been enacted.
With or without this law, neither Taiwanese companies nor Taiwanese citizens on the mainland would be safe in the event of war. Taiwanese operating in the PRC right now on the assumption that the tense status quo will continue indefinitely are presenting themselves as potential hostages.
The Taipei Times says that the law “expands the discretionary power of the Chinese Communist Party, its government and military over what constitutes a threat.” Perhaps it does not so much “expand” as “reassert” the CCP’s discretionary power, as well as serve Party propaganda. The main limits that the CCP recognizes seem to be those imposed by its sense of what it can get away with at any particular moment.
