Analysts Warn China May Study Iran’s Hormuz Tactics For Taiwan

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB): How Hormuz Could Shape China’s Taiwan Strategy. Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz without a navy. A handful of missile and drone strikes convinced insurance markets that transit came with too steep a risk, and commercial shipping immediately shut down.

The chokepoint closed on its own, without Iran ever having to declare formal blockade. The lesson for Beijing is obvious. Chinese military planners, who have long studied how to use economic pressure against Taiwan, have proof of concept.

You don’t need to sink ships to shut down a global trade route and force U.S. to negotiating table. You just need to create enough uncertainty that private sector falls in line.

The Trump administration does not have the stomach for prolonged economic pain, and it has no plan to make that pain tolerable. America’s adversaries have us over a barrel. Washington needs to deal with this problem, or we are setting ourselves up to be blackmailed and extorted in every region of the world. Read More at Time.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of the top defense news of the last couple of days from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

THE PDB – Not the President’s Daily Briefing, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF:    

NATIONAL SECURITY

Starlink outage hit drone tests, exposing Pentagon’s growing reliance on SpaceX.

DEFENSE POLITICS

War Secretary Pete Hegseth instructed department leaders to terminate most of department’s collective-bargaining agreements, year after President Trump signed executive order banning federal employee unions from many agencies on national security grounds.

Army leaders questioned by lawmakers about why Gen. Randy George, service’s former chief of staff, was forced to retire earlier this month.

‘Actively shrinking’: Nation’s Air National Guard leaders making their most unified push yet to recapitalize Air Force’s fighter fleet, with 22 generals signing letter to Congress calling for multiyear funding to buy between 72 and 100 new fighters annually.

US POWER OVERSEAS

Fire aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower injures 3 sailors.

First 2 new Arctic Security Cutters (icebreakers), to be delivered to Coast Guard in 2028, will be homeported in Alaska.

U.S. military says strike on narco-vessel in Eastern Pacific kills three narco-terrorists drug runners.

IRAN CEASEFIRE

10-day truce holding in Lebanon, promising pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah terrorists and possibly clearing a major obstacle to deal between Iran and U.S. and Israel to end war.

Pakistani army chief visits Tehran in bid to broker renewed talks between U.S. and Iran.

Hegseth says U.S. military is ‘locked and loaded’ to finish job on Iran energy grid which is “not destroyed yet” while also lambasting the media.

Pre-war planning meant Iran’s military was able to mitigate some impact of U.S.-Israeli strikes on its weapons arsenal and leadership, according to Western military intelligence — which also say it retains ability to respond if ceasefire fails.

IRAN CAMPAIGN

Low-cost interceptor drones first sent to Ukraine have defended U.S. troops against Iranian barrages of Shahed-136 one-way attack munitions. Army Secretary lauded Merops interceptor and process to get it quickly into hands of troops in Middle East.

As U.S. embarks on clearing mines from Strait of Hormuz, it could draw on arsenal of drones, explosive-laden robots and helicopters to reduce risks, though de-mining crews could still be vulnerable to Iranian attacks.

REGIONAL/GLOBAL IMPACT

End of managed escalation in the Gulf. U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has exposed reality many policymakers long preferred to avoid: The deterrence model that governed the Gulf for decades is no longer working as intended.

Iran war pushes Asia to rethink LNG. Steadily increasing global supplies of liquified natural gas (LNG) were supposed to usher in a new era of lower-priced energy, particularly for Asia – then the Iran war happened.

Strikes on Qatar’s LNG plant to reshape future of gas. Asia’s reliance on LNG is shattered.

CHINA THREAT

U.S. intelligence detects signs China is weighing giving Iran advance radar systems.

Australian judge turned away appeal by former U.S. Marine pilot Daniel Duggan to avoid extradition to U.S. over allegations he illegally trained Chinese military aviators more than decade ago.

RUSSIA THREAT/UKRAINE WAR

Russia hammered civilian areas across Ukraine with drones and missiles in worst aerial attack in weeks.

Ukraine’s army evolves under fire, with new units challenging Soviet legacy.

EUROPEAN DEFENSE

EU pumps $1.26 billion into defense R&D, centered around Ukraine war lessons that makes clear where bloc’s defense priorities lie: drones, autonomy, and an increasingly institutionalized partnership with Kyiv.

France’s armed forces working on data-management system powered by AI as their equivalent to Pentagon’s Project Maven.

SPACE THREATS

Depleted Space Force races to prepare for Trump’s spending spree. Trump wants to double Space Force’s budget in just one year — stunning move to build out military’s orbital arsenal.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Iran war has left Britain’s armed forces exposed, heaping pressure on left-wing Prime Minister Keir Starmer to act on promises to invest in defense, after years of warnings from military bosses about UK’s dangerously shrinking capabilities.

US MILITARY

Air Force and Space Force reached their fiscal year 2026 recruitment goals five months ahead of schedule.

Combat search and rescue’s uncertain future: As A-10s phase out, what comes next? Callsign “Sandy,” is used by Air Force aircraft and pilots conducting combat search-and-rescue operations since 1965.

VETERANS

With more than 100,000 veterans incarcerated in U.S., more investment needed for transition from military to civilian life and services for those who have run afoul of law.

Judges and courts should consider veteran’s military service when giving “second look” to excessively long prison sentences. ‘Second look’ reductions of long prison sentences are allowed in federal courts and 25 states, but veterans groups say Congress needs to ensure that those reviews take military service into account.

AI is helping VA speed up claims processing, but Dems worry about errors. VA officials told lawmakers that human reviewers make final decisions and that greater use of emerging capabilities has not correlated with increase in errors or issues.

END of PDB

FOR MORE DETAILED, UNCENSORED, INTELLIGENCE, AND ANALYSIS FROM PAUL CRESPO, SUBSCRIBE TO HIS SUBSTACK.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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