Within days, thousands of Starlink terminals arrived, restoring command and control across the battlefield despite Russia’s best efforts to black out communications.

That episode sent shock waves through military circles worldwide – especially in Beijing.

For the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), preparing for a potential campaign over Taiwan means answering an urgent question: how to achieve electromagnetic dominance when the enemy could access a constellation of 10,000-plus satellites that hop, adapt and resist jamming in real time?

A groundbreaking simulation study by Chinese scientists offers the most detailed public analysis to date of how the PLA could attempt to silence one of the most resilient communication systems ever built.