Governments worldwide are understandably focusing all of their energies on defeating the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigating the economic fallout from it. However, they must find additional bandwidth to deal with a fresh problem.
Adopting the policy of “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” China is trying to sneak through predatory acquisitions of key strategic assets and bribe governments into using Huawei Technologies equipment for their 5G networks.
Imagination Technologies is a UK-based technology firm that licenses semiconductor chip designs to other companies, including Apple. The British government was forced to intervene on Tuesday last week when Chinese state-owned China Reform Holdings attempted a boardroom coup, with Imagination’s former chief executive Hossein Yossaie accusing China of “using the coronavirus crisis as cover.”
Meanwhile, the Australian government on March 29 introduced measures requiring all foreign investment bids to be scrutinized by the Foreign Investment Review Board, following reports of Chinese-owned firms in Australia securing tonnes of medical supplies and shipping them to China.
Australian Broadcasting Corp said the measures were introduced to prevent China from taking advantage of the nation’s weakened economy under lockdown to snap up strategically important assets.
“Aussie businesses have taken some big hits through the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to protect our most vulnerable from authoritarian states angling for bargains through their business fronts,” Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security Chair Andrew Hastie said.
Huawei vice president Victor Zhang (張國威) on Monday published an open letter on the company’s UK Web site warning the British government against making a U-turn on its January decision to allow Huawei a limited role in building the UK’s 5G network, with Huawei apparently concerned that the political fallout from China’s cover-up of the COVID-19 outbreak could cause London to reverse its decision.
At the time, the decision to allow Huawei equipment into the “noncore” elements of the UK’s 5G network was controversial within the UK, as well as with its closest allies, including the US and Australia.
Huawei has been quietly engaging in strategic “mask diplomacy” during the pandemic, offering to ship large quantities of medical supplies to many countries such as Canada, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Such “gifts” might not be altogether altruistic, as all these countries are being courted by Huawei to build their 5G networks.
Once the pandemic is under control, many countries are likely to reassess their dependence on China.
It is likely that the US is going to ramp up pressure on nations to build their 5G networks using technology from suppliers such as Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia.
This presents a golden opportunity for Taiwan.
The nation holds a leading position in the communications components manufacturing supply chain, with firms such as MediaTek and Askey Computer Corp able to produce 5G chipsets and routers, while Ericsson’s Asia 5G testing laboratory is in Taiwan.
Ericsson Taiwan president Chafic Nassif in August last year said that Taiwan would be able to ramp up 5G services faster than in Europe.
Amid the pandemic, the government has had success in elevating the nation’s international profile and countering nefarious Chinese soft power with its “Taiwan can help” campaign.
The government should consider putting together a consortium of Taiwanese firms that could work with internationally trusted vendors such as Ericsson under the “Taiwan can help” banner to provide a viable alternative to Huawei and other high-risk Chinese companies.
Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on April 9 said that the first group of Indian workers could arrive as early as this year as part of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India and the India Taipei Association. Signed in February 2024, the MOU stipulates that Taipei would decide the number of migrant workers and which industries would employ them, while New Delhi would manage recruitment and training. Employment would be governed by the laws of both countries. Months after its signing, the two sides agreed that 1,000 migrant workers from India would
In recent weeks, Taiwan has witnessed a surge of public anxiety over the possible introduction of Indian migrant workers. What began as a policy signal from the Ministry of Labor quickly escalated into a broader controversy. Petitions gathered thousands of signatures within days, political figures issued strong warnings, and social media became saturated with concerns about public safety and social stability. At first glance, this appears to be a straightforward policy question: Should Taiwan introduce Indian migrant workers or not? However, this framing is misleading. The current debate is not fundamentally about India. It is about Taiwan’s labor system, its
Japan’s imminent easing of arms export rules has sparked strong interest from Warsaw to Manila, Reuters reporting found, as US President Donald Trump wavers on security commitments to allies, and the wars in Iran and Ukraine strain US weapons supplies. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling party approved the changes this week as she tries to invigorate the pacifist country’s military industrial base. Her government would formally adopt the new rules as soon as this month, three Japanese government officials told Reuters. Despite largely isolating itself from global arms markets since World War II, Japan spends enough on its own
On March 31, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs released declassified diplomatic records from 1995 that drew wide domestic media attention. One revelation stood out: North Korea had once raised the possibility of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. In a meeting with visiting Chinese officials in May 1995, as then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) prepared for a visit to South Korea, North Korean officials objected to Beijing’s growing ties with Seoul and raised Taiwan directly. According to the newly released records, North Korean officials asked why Pyongyang should refrain from developing relations with Taiwan while China and South Korea were expanding high-level
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