Government agencies are to be banned from using any Chinese electronics from the end of this year, rather than have a “blacklist” of products that must be continually updated, a source within the Executive Yuan said on Saturday.
The Executive Yuan on April 19, 2019, released guidelines on the use of information and communications technology products that might pose a threat to national cybersecurity at public institutions.
The guidelines included plans to publish a list of banned products within three months, but the list has yet to be released.
Photo: Bloomberg
Responding privately to legislators’ concerns over the delay, the Executive Yuan said that it revised the policy by banning all information and communications technology products made by Chinese firms, an Executive Yuan source said on condition of anonymity.
The change was made over concerns about needing to constantly update a list, as well as the difficulty of precisely defining its scope, considering the volume of subsidiary products, the source said.
Federal and local agencies had been instructed to remove all China-made information and communications technology equipment by the end of this year, he said.
Agencies unable to comply must seek approval from the Executive Yuan in a report stating their reasoning and when banned products could be phased out, he added.
The decision is a prudent way to avoid the controversy that can accompany publishing a blacklist, the source said.
Central government agencies had been banned from using equipment made by Huawei Technologies over concerns regarding its links to China’s People’s Liberation Army, but products such as cameras from Hikvision Digital Technology are still widely used due to their competitive pricing, reports have said.
Executive Yuan data released in May showed that 19,256 China-made devices were in use at 2,596 public schools, federal agencies and local governments.
Of these, 717 institutions used 1,848 drones or cameras made by the Shenzhen-based firm Da-Jiang Innovations Technology, the data showed.
Meanwhile, 423 institutions used 1,632 computer networking or recording products from TP-Link Technologies, and 309 agencies or schools used 1,076 camera products from Hikvision, the data showed.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
RSS