Taiwan, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are working together to install undersea cables as a demonstration of digital solidarity, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
Blinken talked about the cooperation in a speech he delivered at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
He said that the US International Cyberspace and Digital Strategy launched by the US Department of State “treats digital solidarity as our North Star.”
Photo: AP
“Solidarity informs our approach not only to digital technologies, but to all key foundational technologies,” Blinken said.
Under the strategy, the US is to work with international partners “to shape the design, development, governance, and use of cyberspace and digital technologies,” the US Department of State said on Monday.
As part of the effort, the US has established partnerships with Taiwan, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to install and operate “a cable that will connect up to 100,000 people across the spread-out Pacific Islands,” as well as other similar projects in South America, Africa and the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
If undersea cables are disrupted or compromised, it could lead to isolation, national security risks or huge economic losses as they carry more than 95 percent of the world’s digital traffic across the ocean floor, he added.
Separately, Taiwan has signed four memorandums of understanding (MOU) with three nations under the New Southbound Policy to cooperate on transportation security, science, product assessment and disaster research, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Taiwan signed an MOU with Australia on April 2 to expand cooperation on the safety of maritime and railway transportation, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director Peter Lan (藍夏禮) told a news conference.
Under the MOU, the two sides are to work together on accident investigation, information security and technical training, he said.
Taipei and Canberra on Monday signed another MOU to strengthen cooperation on science and research in fields such as information and communication technology, supply chain resilience, biotechnology and net-zero transformation, Lan said.
On the same day, Taiwan signed an MOU with the Philippines to boost bilateral exchanges and share experiences on landslide and debris flow disasters, he said.
Taiwan last week signed an MOU with Indonesia on cooperation on standardization and conformity assessments, he added.
The MOU would help both sides better understand standards, regulations and certification regarding commodities to lower trade barriers and create a more convenient trade environment for businesses in the two nations, Lan said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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