Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and French Office in Taipei Director Jean-Francois Casabonne-Masonnave on Tuesday signed an agreement to promote cooperation on virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed-reality development.
The possibilities for cooperation between the two nations on XR — the collective term for the three technologies — is endless. Institutions in France such as the Louvre are using XR for virtual tours amid the COVID-19 pandemic, while French firms such as immersiv.io are using them to facilitate an immersive experience for sports fans, for example providing real-time player locations on a soccer field.
In Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has used VR to highlight the government’s successes and challenges in containing the pandemic, and has shared an English-language version of a 3D video at youtu.be/9QtUzEyvpw4.
Perhaps more importantly, XR has helped Taiwanese firms promote themselves at trade fairs amid travel restrictions and health concerns due to the pandemic. In July last year, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council set up an online VR platform for businesses that had been scheduled to attend the Hannover Industrial Fair in Germany, and this month, the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Taiwan Tech Arena launched a VR pavilion that allowed start-ups to remotely participate at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Taiwan is home to TSMC, one of the biggest names in semiconductor and video processing technologies, which produces chips used in many XR applications. Taiwan can provide the hardware and software for French applications, or cooperate with French software engineers on their development. Taiwan could also help host French applications, given the nation’s strengths in fixed and mobile network infrastructure.
Taiwan and France have cooperated in other areas in the past few years, as highlighted in talks between the Ministry of Culture and the French Office in 2018 on promoting Taipei as a hub for non-governmental organizations, and cultural exchanges, such as France hosting Taiwanese start-ups and Taiwanese artists participating in French art festivals.
The future of Taiwan-France relations could develop in two important ways: First, as XR and other remote-computing technologies would be of growing importance in the wake of the pandemic, the two countries can leverage their experience to be industry leaders. Second, given that France has expressed concerns over China’s expansionism and its suppression of Taiwan on the global stage, it is likely that Taipei could leverage those concerns to promote military cooperation with Paris.
On Dec. 7 last year, the Sankei Shimbun reported that France is to join the US and Japan in military drills in the East China Sea in May.
“This is a message aimed at China. This is a message about multilateral partnerships and the freedom of passage,” French Navy Chief of Staff Pierre Vandier told the Japanese newspaper in an interview.
As the report suggested that the drills are motivated by Chinese ambitions over the Diaoyutais (釣魚島) — which Japan also claims and calls the Senkakus — Taiwan has a vested interest in participating.
Taiwan has purchased military equipment from France, so military cooperation between the two countries is not out of the question. France made its position clear in May last year when it announced the sale to Taiwan of weapons to upgrade French warships sold to the country nearly 30 years ago.
Responding to Chinese criticisms over the weapons sale, it said that it “respects the contractual commitments it made with Taiwan and has not changed its position since 1994.”
Taiwan and France clearly have shared interests in regional stability and technology development. The government must act on these interests to bolster the relationship.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were born under the sign of Gemini. Geminis are known for their intelligence, creativity, adaptability and flexibility. It is unlikely, then, that the trade conflict between the US and China would escalate into a catastrophic collision. It is more probable that both sides would seek a way to de-escalate, paving the way for a Trump-Xi summit that allows the global economy some breathing room. Practically speaking, China and the US have vulnerabilities, and a prolonged trade war would be damaging for both. In the US, the electoral system means that public opinion
They did it again. For the whole world to see: an image of a Taiwan flag crushed by an industrial press, and the horrifying warning that “it’s closer than you think.” All with the seal of authenticity that only a reputable international media outlet can give. The Economist turned what looks like a pastiche of a poster for a grim horror movie into a truth everyone can digest, accept, and use to support exactly the opinion China wants you to have: It is over and done, Taiwan is doomed. Four years after inaccurately naming Taiwan the most dangerous place on
Wherever one looks, the United States is ceding ground to China. From foreign aid to foreign trade, and from reorganizations to organizational guidance, the Trump administration has embarked on a stunning effort to hobble itself in grappling with what his own secretary of state calls “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.” The problems start at the Department of State. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that “it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power” and that the world has returned to multipolarity, with “multi-great powers in different parts of the
President William Lai (賴清德) recently attended an event in Taipei marking the end of World War II in Europe, emphasizing in his speech: “Using force to invade another country is an unjust act and will ultimately fail.” In just a few words, he captured the core values of the postwar international order and reminded us again: History is not just for reflection, but serves as a warning for the present. From a broad historical perspective, his statement carries weight. For centuries, international relations operated under the law of the jungle — where the strong dominated and the weak were constrained. That
RSS