The three telecom services that would be opened to Chinese investment under the cross-strait service trade agreement would not put the nation’s information security at risk, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said, adding that the nation’s major telecom carriers are banned from hiring Chinese-funded computer maintenance service contractors.
The commission made the remarks at a public hearing on Tuesday after a few of the nation’s telecom and electrical engineering experts repeatedly said the pact would allow Chinese nationals to access telecom facilities and enable them to steal the personal information of Taiwanese.
The experts also announced their displeasure with NCC Chairperson Howard Shyr (石世豪), who said last week that the commission only knew three college professors who oppose the plans for telecom services. The experts said the list of qualified people opposed to the policy has expanded to nearly 200.
While the commission held a public hearing at 2pm, the experts held a press conference at the same time at a separate venue to voice their objections.
Asked why they chose not to debate the viability of the policy at the commission’s hearing, the experts said their initial task was to educate the public and they would consider discussing the issue with the commission at a later date.
Ferng Huei-wen (馮輝文), who teaches computer science and information engineering at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said that to ban Chinese from entering telecom facilities would be useless.
Taiwanese director Doze Niu (紐承澤) easily provided access for a Chinese photographer to take pictures at a naval base in Taiwan, so Chinese will be able to sneak into telecom facilities under false pretenses, the experts said.
Lin Tsung-nan (林宗男) of National Taiwan University’s Electrical Engineering department said the commission’s claims that the three telecom services are mostly used by corporations and operate on closed networks was just “a way of talking.”
“There is no such thing as a closed network,” Lin said.
The commission reiterated in its presentation at the hearing that the trade pact will only permit Chinese companies to invest in three services offered by Type II telecom businesses, including store and forward network services, store and retrieve network services, and data exchange communication services.
The commission added that Chinese telecom carriers investing in any of these three services must be a publicly listed firm in China or overseas and must not hold more than 50 percent of shares in the firms. Taiwanese carriers must also hold valid security certifications if they want to receive the investment from Chinese investors. Chinese nationals, on the other hand, are banned from entering the network facilities owned by Taiwanese carriers
Though Taiwan allows Chinese investment in computer maintenance companies, Taiwanese telecom carriers are not allowed to hire their services, nor are they allowed to ask any Chinese-funded companies to manage telecommunication facilities on their behalf.
China allows Taiwanese companies to invest in Internet access services, domestic and offshore call centers and online data transaction centers that are for electronic commerce (e-Commerce) Web sites only.
Some of the participants at the hearing said the telecom business should be considered a part of the national defense system and should not be opened to China.
They also questioned whether businesses would gain any competitive edge if their Web sites were allowed to be viewed in China. Some said that Beijing could force the Taiwanese businesspeople to turn over customer data if they want to do business in China.
NCC Spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said in response that subscribers to the telecom services are mostly corporate customers and will want their networks to be accessed by designated users only.
They buy the specialized services because they care more than anybody else about the security and reliability of the system, he said, adding that most of corporate users will also encrypt their messages to prevent any confidential information from being stolen.
“As far as I am concerned, the Chinese online shopping Web site Taobao has approximately 1 million users in Taiwan. Taiwanese buyers have already left their information there. We cannot ask people to stop their going to their Web sites for fear that their information might be stolen because that will make us no different from China,” he said.
Yu added that small and medium-sized businesses in Taiwan can benefit from the agreement because their creative products could have a legitimate way to directly reach a market of 1.3 billion people through their e-Commerce Web sites without fear of being blocked by the Chinese government.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS