A Taiwanese vessel used in a drug smuggling operation was equipped with a Chinese navigation system to evade law enforcement, attorney Huang Hsin-ying (黃馨瑩), a Taiwan Statebuilding Party legislative candidate, said on Tuesday. The use of China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System threatened national security, Central News Agency (CNA) cited Huang as saying.
BeiDou, which is used by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is a two-way system. The more Taiwanese vessels that use it, the more tracking data China has access to — data that could bolster the positioning capabilities of the PLA in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
Use of BeiDou in Taiwan would potentially expose classified locations, such as military sites, to the PLA, while Chinese spies could navigate with it without exposing their location to local authorities.
A CNBC report published on July 29 discussed the importance of the BeiDou system to China’s military. When China lost track of one of its missiles during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, apparently because it did not have access to GPS, Beijing decided it “needed to have [its] own system in order to be able to ensure continued coverage, the degree of accuracy that [it] wanted and to not be relying on another nation for something that was so vital for [its] military operations,” CNBC quoted then-US undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights Sarah Sewall as saying.
Use of BeiDou is illegal in Taiwan and the importation, use or sale of related equipment has been banned by the National Communications Commission (NCC) since 2018.
“According to Articles 65 and 66 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法), those who sell controlled telecommunications radio frequency devices such as BeiDou could face a fine of NT$10,000 to NT$200,000” (US1,540 to US$3,080), CNA cited NCC spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) as saying. Those who import and produce such devices without approval face a fine of NT$100,000 to NT$1 million, Wong said.
Law enforcement officials should have the means to track BeiDou signals within Taiwan’s borders. The coast guard and the military should also have the means to track and jam BeiDou signals.
There could also be research into means to compromise the BeiDou system.
There would likely be interest from several countries to cooperate on such efforts, given that Chinese military ambitions are a shared threat. They might include Japan and the US, as well as India, which has regular skirmishes with China along the two countries’ shared border.
The US has long been concerned about the vulnerability of GPS and some military analysts have warned that GPS satellites would be targeted during a conflict between China and the US or its allies.
China could simply disrupt GPS signals with its own satellites, or could piggyback on GPS with encrypted signals — turning the US’ own system against it.
These concerns might be part of the reasoning behind the 2019 formation of the US Space Force as a branch of the US military.
It might even be that GPS, which was developed in 1978 when the global geopolitical situation was different, cannot meet the needs of today’s geopolitical landscape. The time might be right to develop a new navigation system, which is an area that Taiwan and other countries could cooperate with the US to deliver on.
Whether targeting BeiDou, better protecting GPS or replacing GPS altogether, Taiwan could play a role. In the meantime, it should ensure that China’s navigation system does not become a threat to national security.
Trying to force a partnership between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Intel Corp would be a wildly complex ordeal. Already, the reported request from the Trump administration for TSMC to take a controlling stake in Intel’s US factories is facing valid questions about feasibility from all sides. Washington would likely not support a foreign company operating Intel’s domestic factories, Reuters reported — just look at how that is going over in the steel sector. Meanwhile, many in Taiwan are concerned about the company being forced to transfer its bleeding-edge tech capabilities and give up its strategic advantage. This is especially
US President Donald Trump’s second administration has gotten off to a fast start with a blizzard of initiatives focused on domestic commitments made during his campaign. His tariff-based approach to re-ordering global trade in a manner more favorable to the United States appears to be in its infancy, but the significant scale and scope are undeniable. That said, while China looms largest on the list of national security challenges, to date we have heard little from the administration, bar the 10 percent tariffs directed at China, on specific priorities vis-a-vis China. The Congressional hearings for President Trump’s cabinet have, so far,
The US Department of State has removed the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” in its updated Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, which instead iterates that “we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.” This shows a tougher stance rejecting China’s false claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. Since switching formal diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China in 1979, the US government has continually indicated that it “does not support Taiwan independence.” The phrase was removed in 2022
US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have each given their thoughts on Russia’s war with Ukraine. There are a few proponents of US skepticism in Taiwan taking advantage of developments to write articles claiming that the US would arbitrarily abandon Ukraine. The reality is that when one understands Trump’s negotiating habits, one sees that he brings up all variables of a situation prior to discussion, using broad negotiations to take charge. As for his ultimate goals and the aces up his sleeve, he wants to keep things vague for
RSS