Taiwan / ROC
Republic of China Armed Forces
Taiwan's armed forces — army, navy, air force and mobilisation organisation — under civilian control through the Ministry of National Defense and an elected president.
Coverage · Taiwan Strait
Context, not targeting. This atlas describes structure and history. It deliberately excludes current locations, live strength, unit movements and anything operationally sensitive — the content model has no fields for them. Branch depth reflects what can be established from public sources, not the size, capability or importance of a force: a thin branch means a state publishes little, and record counts are never a measure of strength.
Force StructureThe full command tree for each side — who sits under whom, with the subordination of every record stated and graded.FormationsEvery formation as a searchable list, when you know the unit you are looking for rather than where it sits.
Current state
What this atlas holds
Records assessed as of 2026-09
How the forces on each side are organised — formations, lineage and subordination, never locations or strength.
- Published records57As of 2026-09Formations index
- Reviewed profiles57As of 2026-09Formations indexFull or partial profiles that have passed source review.
- Formations15As of 2026-09Formations indexRecords typed as a formation or a special unit; services, commands and groupings are counted above.
- Documented equipment edges39As of 2026-09Formations indexTyped equipment associations graded documented — never quantities.
- Newest status date2026-09As of 2026-09Formations indexThe most recent status-as-of date any record in this module carries.
The trees The 9 trees this module publishes across 4 sides, as selectable objects. Each plate opens the structure beneath that record; the count on a record is a count of published records, never a measure of strength.Interrogate Taiwan Strait in Explore
Taiwan / ROC
Taiwan Coast Guard Administration
Taiwan's civilian maritime law-enforcement service — the agency that actually meets Chinese coast guard vessels around the outlying islands.
PRC
People's Liberation Army
The armed forces of the Chinese party-state — organised since the 2015–16 reforms into services that build and equip forces and theatre commands that would employ them.
PRC
China Coast Guard
China's maritime law-enforcement service — the instrument of choice for asserting jurisdiction below the threshold that would justify a military response.
PRC
PRC maritime militia structures
State-linked civilian maritime structures reported to act in coordination with Chinese state vessels — documented mainly in the South China Sea, and considerably less clear around Taiwan.
United States
US Indo-Pacific Command
The US combatant command responsible for the Indo-Pacific — the institutional expression of the American presence whose credibility is the system's most discussed variable.
Regional states
Japan Self-Defense Forces
Japan's armed forces — constitutionally constrained, substantially modernising, and positioned across the northern approaches to Taiwan.
Regional states
Armed Forces of the Philippines
The Philippine military — focused on its own maritime disputes with China, and relevant here through the geography of the Luzon Strait and an evacuation mission Manila has named itself.
Regional states
Australian Defence Force
Australia's armed forces — a US ally investing in long-range and undersea capability on decade-plus timelines, with no stated Taiwan commitment.
How to read this atlasRecord states, subordination grades and lineage — and the dated structural changes this module's records and corrections carry
How to read this atlas
Structure. Each side is a set of trees: state military, interior forces, and browsing groups. A record marked “Grouping · not a command” exists only so related organisations can be found together — its members do not share a command, and each states its real parent institution.
Record states. A full profile has passed source review. A stub is an honest structural placeholder — name, place in the tree, broad role, and a dated status — awaiting research. Records that cannot yet meet even that threshold are held internally and do not appear on the site at all.
Subordination grades. Parent links are graded:confirmed, reported, disputed,historical, or unknown. Where a current parent cannot be verified — as with brigades amid Ukraine's rolling corps reform — the record says unknown rather than inventing precision.
Lineage, not amnesia. Reorganised, merged or disbanded organisations keep their records, marked with dated predecessor and successor links — Wagner's absorption after 2023 and the Donetsk and Luhansk corps are carried this way, never as if unchanged.
Every record carries a status as of date for its claims and a separate reviewed date for editorial checks — a review never silently refreshes a status date.
Evidence and grading
- Subordination
- Every parent link is graded by the record itself: confirmed, reported, disputed, historical or unknown. Where a current parent cannot be verified the record says unknown rather than inventing precision.
- Record state
- A full profile has passed source review; a partial profile is under review; a stub is a structural placeholder — name, place in the tree, broad role and a dated status — awaiting research. Records below that threshold are not published at all.
- Confidence
- How well established Vigil considers this assessment to be. It is not a measure of how severe the situation is.