Beijing has targeted Taiwan with military and non-traditional threats, including a disinformation campaign to undercut faith in democracy, but the nation is not alone in defending a free and open Indo-Pacific region, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen told a digital forum in Taipei yesterday.
The forum has attracted attention in Taiwan and the US, as well as throughout the Indo-Pacific region and across the Taiwan Strait, Christensen told the Digital Dialogue Public Forum on US-Taiwan Security Cooperation at the American Innovation Center at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.
The People’s Republic of China poses more than a military threat to Taiwan, as it has a wide-range of non-traditional weapons, including disinformation aimed at undermining public faith in democracy, diplomatic pressure to squeeze Taiwan’s international space and restrict its participation in the international community, and economic coercion, he said.
Photo: CNA
US-Taiwan security cooperation, along with other like-minded democracies, “sends the strong message that Taiwan is not alone,” he said.
The Global Cooperation and Training Framework, which began in 2015 as a Taiwan-US initiative, has expanded to include Japan this year, while more partners are expected to join, he said.
Democracy, tolerance, freedom, pluralism and equality under the law are the shared values that have fostered mutual trust and open communication between Taipei and Washington, Christensen said.
Christensen thanked Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), who is in charge of the Cabinet’s digital policy, for sharing ideas about innovative digital tools.
If the penetration via the Internet cannot be excluded, it is difficult to protect the freedoms of speech, journalism and public gatherings, Tang said.
The security cooperation has enhanced Taiwan’s defense capabilities, deterred military threats and ensured the peace across the Taiwan Strait and in the Indo-Pacific region, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Tsao (曹立傑) said.
Apart from traditional security issues, Taiwan and the US also endeavor to improve collaboration in non-traditional areas related to security, including more than 20 workshops on cybersecurity, humanitarian aids and media literacy under the umbrella of the Global Cooperation and Training Framework, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods