A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere.
A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu.
It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China.
China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment.
Several former TikTok employees revealed to Fortune magazine that every two weeks hundreds of thousands of US users’ data are sent to ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company.
The data include user names, locations and even population statistics.
No matter how much TikTok denies its connection to ByteDance, the report is a sharp rebuttal of its claims.
The most worrying issue is how much of that information has been improperly used.
The US has launched a series of preventative measures to stop the Chinese invasion of privacy. US President Joe Biden last year signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 which prohibits federal agencies from using funds to buy or use drones made in China as they might endanger US national security.
Prohibited drone manufacturers include Da-Jiang Innovations and Autel Intelligent Technology.
The US House of Representatives on April 20 passed a bill urging ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a nationwide ban in the US, aiming to remove the possibility of Chinese interference and infiltration, such as the violation of privacy and information security for strategic objectives.
China’s adoption of non-military methods such as soft power to annex Taiwan is not something new.
Its strategic direction for infiltrating Taiwan by land, people, and through hearts and minds — assimilating Taiwanese through China’s culture and language — has not changed, but its tools and approaches have become more technological and flexible.
Taiwanese are still unaware of this happening.
So far China has attempted to invade their privacy, steal their information and analyze their data to precisely promote content. China even monitors Taiwanese, pervasively interfering with everything in their daily lives.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) early last month visited China. The US considers his visit to be a threat to national security, similar to how Chinese drone manufacturers are a threat to the US.
After returning to Taiwan, Ma even urged amending the nation’s Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office speaking up for him.
While other nations are working together to prevent Chinese infiltration, what the KMT did shows that it wishes to run counter to the rest of the world, and is opposed to safeguarding the nation’s democracy and freedoms, and protecting the public’s privacy and security.
It is essential that the central and local governments propose practical countermeasures. Most importantly, Taiwanese should stay alert when using information technology systems at home.
Yen Wei-tzu is a New Taipei City councilor.
Translated by Chien Yan-ru
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
Next week, the nation is to celebrate the Lunar New Year break. Unfortunately, cold winds are a-blowing, literally and figuratively. The Central Weather Administration has warned of an approaching cold air mass, while obstinate winds of chaos eddy around the Legislative Yuan. English theologian Thomas Fuller optimistically pointed out in 1650 that “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” We could paraphrase by saying the coldest days are just before the renewed hope of spring. However, one must temper any optimism about the damage being done in the legislature by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), under
To our readers: Due to the Lunar New Year holiday, from Sunday, Jan. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 2, the Taipei Times will have a reduced format without our regular editorials and opinion pieces. From Tuesday to Saturday the paper will not be delivered to subscribers, but will be available for purchase at convenience stores. Subscribers will receive the editions they missed once normal distribution resumes on Sunday, Feb. 2. The paper returns to its usual format on Monday, Feb. 3, when our regular editorials and opinion pieces will also be resumed.
Young Taiwanese are consuming an increasing amount of Chinese content on TikTok, causing them to have more favorable views of China, a Financial Times report cited Taiwanese social scientists and politicians as saying. Taiwanese are being exposed to disinformation of a political nature from China, even when using TikTok to view entertainment-related content, the article published on Friday last week said. Fewer young people identify as “Taiwanese” (as opposed to “Chinese”) compared with past years, it wrote, citing the results of a survey last year by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation. Nevertheless, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would be hard-pressed
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