Taiwan has cleared the way for overseas

satellite internet providers such as Starlink

to operate on the island – a move analysts said could strengthen military and civilian communications if conventional networks were disrupted in a conflict with mainland China.

On Tuesday, the island’s legislature approved an amendment to the Telecommunications Management Act that would exempt satellite communications operators from foreign ownership caps and the requirement to have a Taiwanese chair.

The exemptions – which are subject to security and public interest checks – are widely seen as removing the biggest legal obstacle that has prevented Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX, from operating in Taiwan.

Negotiations with the island’s regulators collapsed in 2021 over the company’s insistence on operating a wholly owned local business.

For Taiwan, the significance went far beyond attracting another telecommunications provider, according to Chieh Chung, a research fellow at the Association of Strategic Foresight, a military think tank in Taipei.

Taiwan already works with Britain’s OneWeb to provide low Earth orbit satellite services, but Chieh said this would probably only be enough to support core military communications and those of some government agencies during wartime.