The Canadian government has posted a team of cybersecurity experts at its Taipei office, Canadian media reported yesterday, as Ottawa deepens cooperation with Taiwan to combat hacking and disinformation from China.
Recognizing China poses the biggest threat to both Canada and Taiwan in terms of cybersecurity, Ottawa wants to work with Taiwan to respond to that threat, the Globe and Mail reported.
Photo: AFP
Canada’s Communications Security Establishment in a report last week identified China as “the most comprehensive cybersecurity threat facing Canada today."
As Canada does not have formal relations with Taiwan, it has been cautious about cooperating with Taipei regarding national security.
In January, Ottawa quietly sent officials to Taipei to study disinformation during Taiwan’s presidential election, much of which was conducted by China, the Globe and Mail reported.
Canada has also dispatched cybersecurity teams to Canberra, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo as a part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, the Canadian Department of Global Affairs told the newspaper.
“Through the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Canada is committed to enhancing and diversifying its security partnerships and building its cyberdiplomacy, especially as concerns over foreign interference, state-sponsored disinformation, cybersecurity and cybercrime have become increasingly significant,” department spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod said.
Richard Fadden, a formal national security advisor to two of Canada’s prime ministers and previous head of the Canada Service Intelligence Service, led a group of former Canadian security and defense officials on a trip to Taiwan in September, marking the highest level of engagement between the two countries on national security to date, the paper said.
There is a growing consensus in Canada that if Beijing successfully annexes Taiwan, it would only embolden the Chinese government, so Ottawa plans to quietly deepen its cooperation with Taiwan, Fadden told the paper.
Canada is helping Taiwan improve its national security by providing military goods and technology, the Globe and Mail reported.
Last year, exports of military goods and technology to Taiwan rose to C$32.6 million (US$23.47 million), the highest on record, the paper said, citing department data.
Taiwan also plays an important role in Canada’s growing lithium-ion battery supply chain, it reported.
In November last year, the Canadian federal government and British Columbia provincial government supported E-One Moli Energy Corp, a Taiwanese company, to establish a lithium-ion manufacturing plant in Maple Ridge, aiming to make the area a center of the global supply chain for battery components, the report said.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS