“Taiwan is bracing for a surge in Chinese influence operations ahead of upcoming elections,” a Financial Times (FT) report published on Sunday said.
Experts have called the hacking of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Web site on Tuesday last week the “latest sign of Beijing’s willingness to exert power beyond its borders,” the report said.
Hackers altered the contents of the dpp.org.tw Web site to display messages in simplified Chinese such as “Chinese netizens for re-electing Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)” and “The Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] is next.”
DPP spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said at the time that attacks against the party’s Web site have increased in the run-up to the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24.
“China’s desire to influence electoral outcomes in a manner that favors Beijing is hardly different than Russia’s use of cyber means to attain outcomes more favorable to the Kremlin in Crimea or the US,” Lauren Dickey, a Washington-based Taiwan analyst and King’s College London researcher, said in the FT report.
Taiwan is now “on the front lines of cyberwarfare, with hackers trying to steal information and spreading fake news to create dissent in Taiwan society,” the report quoted a spokesperson for Tsai as saying, adding: “Taiwan will become a global hotspot for cyberattacks and fake news.”
“China’s tougher approach comes as Xi Jinping (習近平), China’s president, acted nationalistically in response to domestic economic problems and closer ties between the US and Taiwan,” Willy Lam (林和立), a China expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in the report.
China is “turning to more overt measures and away from this old [former Chinese leader] Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) axiom of ‘keep a low profile’” when it comes to foreign policy, Lam added.
“Taiwanese cyber security officials said 90 percent of serious hacking attacks on government departments came from China,” the report said.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
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REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from