Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan persist even as ties across the Taiwan Strait have improved, the head of Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday.
Chinese hackers attack Taiwan on almost a daily basis, in part to steal confidential information on the government’s bottom line in cross-strait negotiations, Minister of Science Simon Chang (張善政) said during an interview with a local radio station.
Taiwan has also become a testing ground for Chinese hackers to experiment with new hacking technologies, he said.
Although cross-strait ties appear to have improved, there is a major cyberattack by Chinese hackers once every few months, with the perpetrators hoping to crash Taiwanese Web sites and steal information, he said.
Chang, who is also the Cabinet’s chief information officer, was responding to questions on the nation’s information security.
Meanwhile, addressing the gas pipeline explosions in Greater Kaohsiung reportedly caused by a leaky propene pipeline, Chang said that a task force should be set up to collect and compile information on underground pipelines so that the information is easily accessible to governments at every level.
The blasts on July 31 and Aug. 1, which left 30 people dead and 310 injured, drew attention to the issue of underground petrochemical pipes in highly populated parts of the city, which is the hub of the nation’s petrochemical industry.
Chang said the petrochemical industry has only a 17 percent profit margin, compared with 40 percent in Singapore, and companies in the sector need to realize that costs will only go up in the future given rising environmental awareness.
The companies should pay greater attention to operational safety and maintain a good relationship with residents in the neighborhoods near their factories, Chang said, adding that the ministry was ready to help producers develop innovative techniques to add value.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
A senior US senator on Monday questioned the willingness of some US allies to help defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. Although Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) expects the US and Japan to respond in a war in the Taiwan Strait, he was “a little less confident what our other allies would do,” US Senator John Cornyn said. Australia and New Zealand have voiced support for Taiwan, but it “is a far cry from committing troops to repel an invasion,” Cornyn said during a discussion on China, Russia and the state of US military readiness at a forum hosted
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the