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.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”
TASK FORCE DISPATCHED: MOFA said it would assist state employees with repatriation or relocation to other ally nations in the region after Tegucigalpa severed ties The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Monday ordered Honduras to vacate its embassy in Taiwan within 30 days of Sunday after Tegucigalpa made a similar demand of Taiwan. Taipei on Monday announced that it had cut ties with Honduras after the Central American nation earlier said in a statement that it had established ties with Beijing and ended its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Following the announcements, Honduran Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Garcia spoke on Honduran television saying that Taiwan would be required to vacate its embassy in the Honduran capital. In Taipei, MOFA later told a news conference that “according
RSS