UK rehearsing economic fallout scenarios if China invades Taiwan

Chinese People's Liberation Army aircraft seen during a combat training exercise around Taiwan in 2022. Photograph: Li Bingyu/AP

Whitehall officials have strategised a series of scenarios about the economic fallout that could follow if China were to invade Taiwan, sources have told the Guardian.

Concerns about the major disruption to global supply chains and consequences of any coordinated western response have been examined by civil servants as part of what is said to be routine “forward-scanning” exercises.