Taiwanese should learn from the Russia-Ukrainian war and be mindful of overseas trips by their lawmakers, former Ukrainian parliamentarian Hanna Hopko said on Wednesday.
Some Taiwanese still do not recognize China as a threat or the enemy, she said, adding that public awareness about the threat posed by China should be improved.
Hopko made the comments during the Global Leaders Forum on Civil Defense and Resilience held by the Kuma Academy at National Taiwan University, during which domestic and foreign civil defense leaders and experts exchanged views on national defense.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Kateryna Muzlova, cofounder of the charity foundation Heart in Action Ukraine, said she had been offered civil defense lessons as a high-school student.
Boys learned how to use firearms, while girls learned how to bandage wounds, she said.
“When Russia invaded Ukraine, all those lessons came flooding back to me,” she said.
Hopko, who chaired the Ukrainian parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2019, said that prior to the invasion, some Ukrainians had believed Russia would not attack.
“This is similar to the situation in Taiwan where some still do not think that China is a threat,” she said.
She also discussed Russia’s centuries of expansionism, and its infiltration of Ukraine’s government and society.
China has been trying to infiltrate and create rifts in Taiwanese society, just like Russia did before its occupation of Crimea, she said.
She cited as examples former Ukrainian minister of defense Pavlov Lebedev, who “has a Russian passport,” and former of the Ukrainian Navy commander Denis Berezovsky, who defected to Russia and was appointed deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet shortly after Russia seized Crimea.
Hopko said the level of government positions held by Lebedev and Berezovsky led observers to conclude that Russia had a “near-critical mass of agents of influence” whose activities caused a temporary “power paralysis,” which despite being insufficient in helping Russia conquer Ukraine, played a role in it seizing of Crimea and Sevastopol.
Ukraine made the mistake of not identifying Russia’s “hybrid warfare” earlier and now it is forced to pay the price, she said.
Therefore, Taiwan should be mindful of lawmakers taking overseas trips, particularly to a “neighboring country,” just like some Ukrainian politicians traveled to Moscow, Hopko said.
“Where are your politicians traveling? What are they bringing home with them? And what are they advocating for?” she asked.
Such visits could “split your society,” offering enemies an opportunity to “capture your government,” she said.
Minister of Digital Affairs Huang Yen-nun (黃彥男), who also attended the forum, said the ministry was promoting the research and development of digital systems that would help strengthen Taiwan’s social and economic resilience.
Academy founder Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) said the forum aimed to bring together global leaders to share ideas, and said that guests from Europe and the US would be invited in the future.
The forum explored topics including how the conflict in Ukraine would evolve in the coming years, and how technology is changing the battlefield and civil-defense preparedness.
“Taiwan is facing a growing cybersecurity threat from China, so we seek to tackle this through government transparency, cloud backup systems and strengthening infrastructure such as submarine Internet cables,” Huang said.
National Police Agency Deputy Director Chan Yung-mao (詹永茂) said the agency also encourages members of the public to improve readiness through measures including CPR and first-aid training, emergency-supplies preparation and the study of disaster-response knowledge.
Shen said that while such measures were important, resilience also required media literacy, cyber-defenses and other measures to tackle hybrid warfare.
“In the past, civil defense focused only on first aid and evacuation, but today we must also be aware of cyber and legal warfare. We must build a framework to resist hybrid warfare strategies,” he said.
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