Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) yesterday urged the government to ban the purchase of and remove information security and communications products manufactured in China by companies that have close relations with Beijing.
Taiwan has barred Chinese companies from bidding for government projects or participating in auctions for government projects through subsidiaries in a third country or Taiwanese firms in which they own stakes, Lin told a news conference in Taipei.
The problem are companies such as Fortinet and Zoom, US-based firms owned by Chinese immigrants, Lin said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Fortinet, a cybersecurity firm that specializes in products such as firewalls, has close ties with Beijing, he said.
In 2014, when Beijing celebrated the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, it published a set of stamps featuring the image of Fortinet CEO Ken Xie (謝青) in recognition of his achievements, Lin said.
However, the California-based firm was fined US$545,000 last year for mislabeling products made in China as manufactured in the US and selling them to the US military, he said, adding that the incident prompted the US government to conduct a comprehensive inspection of products made by Fortinet.
Government agencies in Taiwan have also spent about NT$500 million (US$16.84 million) on products from Fortinet in the past six years, with the Ministry of National Defense, the National Security Bureau and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications accounting for about NT$50 million of the total.
If the company dared falsify labels on products sold to the US, there is no guarantee that it would not do the same with Taiwan, Lin said.
Videoconferencing software provider Zoom, which has become popular amid the COVID-19 pandemic, has come under public scrutiny after admitting that it complied with the Chinese government’s policy to shut down the accounts of users holding online meetings to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, he said.
Aside from the US, several other countries have banned the use of Chinese information and communications products amid fears of security breaches, Lin said.
“Taiwan should beware of these companies, which on the surface are US firms, but in reality follow orders from Beijing,” he said. “We have no way of finding out their Chinese connection unless someone reports them.”
The Executive Yuan recently published a report on the information and communications equipment used by government agencies, which found that 38 central government agencies and 108 local government agencies are using China-made devices, the lawmaker said.
However, the report fell short of specifying whether or when these agencies should replace the products, he said.
“We should not procrastinate on dealing with this issue, as Taiwan, of all countries, faces the severest national security threat from China,” he said.
Given security issues associated with such firms, the government should exercise more caution when procuring information and communications equipment, Lin said.
The government is compiling a list of all permissible information security products on the inter-entity supply contract, said Jyan Hong-wei (簡宏偉), director of the Executive Yuan’s Department of Cyber Security.
The contract would exclude the procurement of Chinese software, Chien added.
Open-source software, on the other hand, must undergo a test first, he said, adding that government agencies would be urged to procure products on the inter-entity supply contract list.
“We would list the Chinese information security and communications equipment that government agencies are currently using and keep them informed about security breach incidents,” Chien said.
“Government agencies would also be asked to remove these devices as soon as they reach their replacement date. For those that have yet to reach their replacement date, we would ask the agencies not to connect them to the main frame,” Chien said.
“We would also work to gradually raise the procurement of domestically manufactured information security products to 52 percent,” Chien said.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires