The Canadian government has posted a team of cybersecurity experts at its Taipei office, Canadian media reported yesterday, as Ottawa deepens cooperation with Taiwan to combat hacking and disinformation from China.
Recognizing China poses the biggest threat to both Canada and Taiwan in terms of cybersecurity, Ottawa wants to work with Taiwan to respond to that threat, the Globe and Mail reported.
Photo: AFP
Canada’s Communications Security Establishment in a report last week identified China as “the most comprehensive cybersecurity threat facing Canada today."
As Canada does not have formal relations with Taiwan, it has been cautious about cooperating with Taipei regarding national security.
In January, Ottawa quietly sent officials to Taipei to study disinformation during Taiwan’s presidential election, much of which was conducted by China, the Globe and Mail reported.
Canada has also dispatched cybersecurity teams to Canberra, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo as a part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, the Canadian Department of Global Affairs told the newspaper.
“Through the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Canada is committed to enhancing and diversifying its security partnerships and building its cyberdiplomacy, especially as concerns over foreign interference, state-sponsored disinformation, cybersecurity and cybercrime have become increasingly significant,” department spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod said.
Richard Fadden, a formal national security advisor to two of Canada’s prime ministers and previous head of the Canada Service Intelligence Service, led a group of former Canadian security and defense officials on a trip to Taiwan in September, marking the highest level of engagement between the two countries on national security to date, the paper said.
There is a growing consensus in Canada that if Beijing successfully annexes Taiwan, it would only embolden the Chinese government, so Ottawa plans to quietly deepen its cooperation with Taiwan, Fadden told the paper.
Canada is helping Taiwan improve its national security by providing military goods and technology, the Globe and Mail reported.
Last year, exports of military goods and technology to Taiwan rose to C$32.6 million (US$23.47 million), the highest on record, the paper said, citing department data.
Taiwan also plays an important role in Canada’s growing lithium-ion battery supply chain, it reported.
In November last year, the Canadian federal government and British Columbia provincial government supported E-One Moli Energy Corp, a Taiwanese company, to establish a lithium-ion manufacturing plant in Maple Ridge, aiming to make the area a center of the global supply chain for battery components, the report said.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS