Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang (唐鳳) yesterday delivered an unannounced video message at a US-backed democracy summit in Seoul.
Tang told the third Summit for Democracy that Taiwan has suffered disproportionately from concerted cyberattacks and that the nation was willing and able to work with all stakeholders to ensure artificial intelligence (AI) develops safely and sustainably.
Taiwan is a key global supplier of the semiconductor chips critical for such technology applications.
Photo: screen grab from the Ministry of Digital Affairs’ YouTube channel
The conference being hosted by South Korea is an initiative of US President Joe Biden aimed at finding ways to stop democratic backsliding and the erosion of rights and freedoms.
China said it was firmly opposed to South Korea having invited Taiwan to participate.
“There is only one China in the world,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian (林劍) told a regular news conference in Beijing yesterday. “Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory.”
He urged Seoul to abide by the “one China” principle and stop providing a platform for Taiwanese independence forces to boost their prestige.
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond when asked about Lin’s comments.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has charted a course closer to the US, but China is South Korea’s largest trading partner, and Yoon has also tried to placate Beijing to avoid widespread economic blowback.
Tang’s participation in the event was not announced in advance by authorities in Taiwan or South Korea.
A session program distributed yesterday listed only a possible video message in fine print at the end, while Tang’s ministry did not flag the appearance in her daily schedule of public events given to reporters.
Tang’s comments were made in a pre-recorded video message, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The South Korean announcer who introduced Tang’s video said she was appearing in a private capacity as an expert on the issues.
A democratic, rather than technocratic approach, is ideal to tackle the challenges of AI, such as by mobilizing citizens to identify and counter misinformation, Tang told the gathering.
Tang’s invitation to Biden’s first democracy summit in 2021 also drew protest from China, while US officials cut short the video feed of her remarks after a map in her slide presentation depicted Taiwan in a color different from that of China.
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