Democracies facing pressure from China and Russia can strengthen their defenses without giving up free speech and open debate — a message aimed squarely at Taiwan as it builds "whole-of-society" resilience.

• China and Russia are waging a "shadow war" below the threshold of open conflict, using influence operations, information manipulation and AI to exploit the openness of democratic societies.
• The biggest weakness is internal division: political polarization gives outside powers a crack to pry open, so reducing domestic splits is itself a defense measure.
• Democracies have an edge authoritarian states lack — they can mobilize businesses, civil society and citizens alongside government, but only with a deliberate, sustained strategy.
• Ukraine is the model: despite being smaller than Russia in people, economy and land, it has held on through decentralized organization, drone warfare and fast innovation.
• Christopher Walker, who coined the "sharp power" concept and spoke at Taiwan's presidential-office resilience forum, warns that even in wartime democracies must keep real free speech and political pluralism — authoritarian rivals want democracies to tear themselves apart from within.

Outlook: Expect Taiwan to keep pushing civil-defense and counter-disinformation efforts, with the key test being whether it can do so without deepening its own partisan divides.