For half an hour on Monday, mobile data was throttled across central Taiwan, leaving millions of people unable to stream videos or share photos or make video calls on their cellphones.

周一，台湾中部地区的移动数据被限速了半个小时，导致数以百万计的人无法在手机上观看流媒体视频、分享照片或进行视频通话。

The interruption was deliberate: Taiwan was testing, for the first time on a mass scale, how the island might cope if a Chinese attack disrupted its communications.

这种中断是有意为之：台湾在进行首次大规模测试，以评估若中国发动攻击导致通信中断，该岛将如何应对。

The activity was part of Taiwan’s annual civil defense exercise, when the government tries to give citizens a sense, albeit a fleeting one, of how they should respond if China tried to seize the self-governed island by force.

这项活动是台湾年度民防演习的一部分，在演习中，政府试图让民众体验——尽管为时短暂——如果中国试图武力夺取这座自治岛屿，他们应该如何应对。

The exercise is held in different regions, on different days. On Monday, in Taichung, a city of nearly 3 million people in central Taiwan, the government held an air-raid drill in which sirens were sounded at 2:30 p.m. telling people to seek shelter. Streets emptied as people filed into basements or stayed still in homes, shops, malls and train stations. Then a message flashed on phones across the city.

演习在不同地区、不同日期分批举行。周一，在台湾中部拥有近300万人口的城市台中，政府举行了防空演习，下午2点30分拉响防空警报，要求民众寻找掩护。街道变得空无一人，人们排队进入地下室，或留在家里、商店、商场和火车站内。随后，全市的手机上都闪烁出一条通知。

有人躲进了一个地下停车场。

“Due to simulated air attacks on communications infrastructure, mobile network access will be affected,” it said, reminding residents to switch to fixed-line broadband internet access or indoor Wi-Fi, and listed emergency hotline numbers.

“因我通讯设施遭受空袭，行动网路将受影响，”信息中写道，并提醒居民切换到固定宽带网络或室内Wi-Fi，并列出了紧急热线号码。

Taichung was one of 14 cities and counties designated for the internet-disruption exercise.

台中是此次指定进行网络中断演习的14个县市之一。

In the LaLaport mall, most shops went dark and closed for the 30-minute drill, while shoppers and diners stayed in place. Some people took naps. Others chatted or played games and watched videos that were already on to their phones.

在LaLaport购物中心，大多数商店在30分钟的演习期间熄灯停业，而购物者和就餐者则留在原地。一些人小憩片刻。其他人聊天、玩游戏、观看手机上已经缓存好的视频。

“I think it’s needed for sure,” said Yu Chun-hsuan, a dental nursing student sitting in the mall’s food court. “Nowadays we’re all so attached to our phones. If there’s a war or something, they really might resort to cyber warfare or cutting communications.”

“应该算蛮有必要的，”坐在商场美食广场的牙科护理专业学生尤俊旋说。“现在大家都蛮喜欢手机。如果之后可能真的有战争之类的，可能会真的利用网路战，断通信啊这些。”

The government of President Lai Ching-te has stepped up the publicity about this year’s civilian exercises, emphasizing the danger posed by China — which under Xi Jinping has expanded its multitudes of warships, landing vessels and missiles that could support an invasion of Taiwan. Mr. Xi says he hopes to absorb Taiwan peacefully but will not rule out using force.

赖清德政府加强了对今年民防演习的宣传，强调了中国构成的危险——在习近平的领导下，中国扩充了可用于支持入侵台湾的大量军舰、登陆舰和导弹。习近平表示希望和平统一台湾，但不排除使用武力的可能性。

当局向手机用户发送了一条通知，警告称正在限制移动数据流量。在LaLaport购物中心，大多数店铺在30分钟的演习期间熄灯关闭，而购物者和就餐者留在原地。

The exercise cautiously tested a problem that Taiwan sees as central to its defense: how the island would function if its communications with the world were degraded. Taiwan relies heavily on subsea cables for telecommunications and officials have said that commercial ships linked to China have sabotaged cables between Taiwan and some of its outer islands. A broader loss of connectivity could seriously disrupt all of Taiwan, and sow panic.

此次演习谨慎地测试了一个被台湾视为防御核心的问题：如果该岛与外界的通信质量下降，它将如何运转。台湾的电信高度依赖海底光缆，有官员曾表示，与中国有关联的商船曾经破坏台湾与其部分外岛之间的光缆。更大范围的网络连接中断可能会严重扰乱整个台湾，散布恐慌。

At the same time, the civil defense drills, held alongside the military’s 10-day annual drills, have become a yearly reminder of how differently people view the threat from China. Some residents in Taichung said that the risk of an attack by China was real and urgent. Others said the chances of war were slim, or that Taiwan’s government was at least partly to blame for the heightened tensions.

与此同时，与军方为期10天的年度演习同时举行的民防演习已成为每年一次的提醒，凸显出人们对中国威胁的看法存在多大差异。台中一些居民表示，中国袭击的风险是真实且迫在眉睫的。也有人表示，发生战争的可能性微乎其微，或者台湾政府至少应对紧张局势加剧承担部分责任。

“If both sides could get along in peace, there wouldn’t be these high, over-the-top levels of tension,” said Yang Yu-chen, a former soldier, now in his sixties, who owns a store selling children’s shoes.

“两边如果大家和平相处的话，就不会产生那么大的（紧张感），太过于紧张，”年过六旬、开了一家童鞋店的退伍军人杨语宸说。

Huang Chiung-chu, a 70-year-old selling steamed buns at a stall nearby, said China was a dire threat and the drill was the least that the Taiwanese people could do to protect themselves. It was being more strictly enforced than past years, she added, pointing to an instruction sheet that a police officer had handed her.

在附近摊位卖包子的70岁老人黄琼珠说，中国是一个可怕的威胁，演习是台湾民众为保护自己所能做的最起码的事情。她指着警察递给她的一份指示单补充说，今年的演习执行得比往年更严格。

“Taiwan can’t be too weak, it needs to be a bit stronger,” she said. “Because that way, people won’t look at us as a little country and try to annex or bully us.”

“台湾不能太软弱，要强一点，”她说。“因为这样才不会被人家看得说你是小国，然后要来侵吞你、欺负你。”

卖包子的黄琼珠说：“台湾不能太软弱，要强一点。”演习期间，台中街头空无一人，人们躲进地下室，或留在家中、商店、商场和火车站里。

Part of the annual military drill appears to be to reassure the public that the island can defend itself.

年度军事演习的部分目的似乎是为了向公众保证，该岛有能力保卫自己。

On its first night, last Wednesday, Taiwanese military police simulated whisking Mr. Lai to safety from a simulated attempt by Chinese forces to “decapitate,” or eliminate, him. Television footage showed troops escorting him out of the presidential building and into a convoy of armored vehicles that rushed him through empty streets to an underground command center.

在演习的第一天晚上，即上周三，台湾宪兵模拟了从中国军队的“斩首”行动中将赖清德护送到安全地带。电视画面显示，部队护送他走出总统府，进入装甲车车队，车队在空旷的街道上疾驰，将他送往地下指挥中心。

The bigger question is how Taiwan’s population would react during a real invasion or blockade. A 30-minute drill offers only a brief picture, but for some residents it helped them feel more mentally prepared.

更大的问题是，在真正的入侵或封锁期间，台湾民众会作何反应。30分钟的演习只能提供一个短暂的缩影，但对一些居民来说，这帮助他们做好了更充分的心理准备。

“The cost we bear from an exercise like this isn’t that high, and if we really have a situation like war, I would then be a little better equipped to handle it,” said Liao Mei-hsiu, a pig farmer who was at the food court in Taichung during the drill, eating ice cream with her husband and their four-year-old daughter.

“我感受（演习带来）的成本不大，然后如果遇到像战争这种状况的话，我能够更有办法去应对，”养猪户廖美秀（音）说。演习期间，她正和丈夫以及四岁的女儿在台中的美食广场吃冰淇淋。

The government also sought to avoid stirring panic, or seriously disrupting business, and held the drill after Taiwan’s stock exchange closed for the day. Later on Monday, the city government said the drill went well and that calls to the emergency hotline and fire brigade had not been disrupted.

政府也力图避免引起恐慌或严重扰乱商业，并将演习安排在台湾证券交易所当日休市后举行。周一晚些时候，市政府表示演习进行得很顺利，拨打紧急热线和消防队的电话没有受到干扰。

左起依次为廖美秀、她的丈夫和四岁的女儿，防空演习期间，他们正在一家购物中心的美食广场。