A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere.
A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu.
It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China.
China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment.
Several former TikTok employees revealed to Fortune magazine that every two weeks hundreds of thousands of US users’ data are sent to ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company.
The data include user names, locations and even population statistics.
No matter how much TikTok denies its connection to ByteDance, the report is a sharp rebuttal of its claims.
The most worrying issue is how much of that information has been improperly used.
The US has launched a series of preventative measures to stop the Chinese invasion of privacy. US President Joe Biden last year signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 which prohibits federal agencies from using funds to buy or use drones made in China as they might endanger US national security.
Prohibited drone manufacturers include Da-Jiang Innovations and Autel Intelligent Technology.
The US House of Representatives on April 20 passed a bill urging ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a nationwide ban in the US, aiming to remove the possibility of Chinese interference and infiltration, such as the violation of privacy and information security for strategic objectives.
China’s adoption of non-military methods such as soft power to annex Taiwan is not something new.
Its strategic direction for infiltrating Taiwan by land, people, and through hearts and minds — assimilating Taiwanese through China’s culture and language — has not changed, but its tools and approaches have become more technological and flexible.
Taiwanese are still unaware of this happening.
So far China has attempted to invade their privacy, steal their information and analyze their data to precisely promote content. China even monitors Taiwanese, pervasively interfering with everything in their daily lives.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) early last month visited China. The US considers his visit to be a threat to national security, similar to how Chinese drone manufacturers are a threat to the US.
After returning to Taiwan, Ma even urged amending the nation’s Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office speaking up for him.
While other nations are working together to prevent Chinese infiltration, what the KMT did shows that it wishes to run counter to the rest of the world, and is opposed to safeguarding the nation’s democracy and freedoms, and protecting the public’s privacy and security.
It is essential that the central and local governments propose practical countermeasures. Most importantly, Taiwanese should stay alert when using information technology systems at home.
Yen Wei-tzu is a New Taipei City councilor.
Translated by Chien Yan-ru
On April 19, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) gave a public speech, his first in about 17 years. During the address at the Ketagalan Institute in Taipei, Chen’s words were vague and his tone was sour. He said that democracy should not be used as an echo chamber for a single politician, that people must be tolerant of other views, that the president should not act as a dictator and that the judiciary should not get involved in politics. He then went on to say that others with different opinions should not be criticized as “XX fellow travelers,” in reference to
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Liu Shu-pin (劉書彬) asked Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) a question on Tuesday last week about President William Lai’s (賴清德) decision in March to officially define the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as a foreign hostile force. Liu objected to Lai’s decision on two grounds. First, procedurally, suggesting that Lai did not have the right to unilaterally make that decision, and that Cho should have consulted with the Executive Yuan before he endorsed it. Second, Liu objected over national security concerns, saying that the CCP and Chinese President Xi