The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) cognitive warfare efforts against Taiwan have increased over the past few years, and Beijing is expected to attempt to intervene in next year’s presidential and legislative elections, National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday.
Koo made the remarks at an annual seminar held by the Lei Chen Foundation for Democracy and Human Rights.
Democracy is facing challenges worldwide, Koo said, citing a report published on March 2 by the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Political Science.
Photo: CNA
The report by the Swedish university highlighted that 72 percent of the global population, or about 5.7 billion people, live under authoritarian rule, Koo said.
“The level of democracy enjoyed by the average world citizen in 2022 is back to 1986 levels,” Koo cited the report as saying.
In terms of democratic freedoms, Taiwan ranks 30th globally and third in Asia, but as the nation is in the first island chain and at the center of a geopolitical confrontation between the US and China, its democratic way of life is greatly challenged, Koo said.
Escalating tensions in and near the Taiwan Strait should be a warning for the world, he said, adding that China not only attempts to compete with the US, but also seeks to challenge the world order.
Koo said Washington’s plan to establish military bases in the Philippines is a response to the Chinese threat, as the US seeks to deter Beijing from spreading its autocratic system in the Indo-Pacific region.
Countries that have long hoped that China would maintain a “peaceful rise” have increasingly become aware of the threat and issued clear warnings regarding Chinese aggressions against Taiwan, Koo said.
Taipei’s primary goal is to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, safeguard Taiwan’s hard-won democratic way of life and ensure that Taiwanese determine their own future, Koo said.
Taiwan is looking to deepen international collaborations and form closer ties with its democratic allies, Koo said.
Even though democracy is inherently fragile against manipulation by autocratic states, as long as Taiwanese remain united, democracy would be the aegis of our country, Koo said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS