Day: December 14, 2021

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the United States would work with allies to defend and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Speaking during a visit to Indonesia, Blinken said the greatest strength against evolving threats is working with other nations, and that the U.S. wants to ensure people and countries have the freedom to decide on their own futures and partners.

“We’ll adopt a strategy that more closely weaves together all our instruments of national power — diplomacy, military, intelligence — with those of our allies and partners," he said.

Blinken reiterated U.S. commitment to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, an area where he said China’s actions threaten the movement of $3 trillion in goods annually.

“That's why there's so much concern from Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia and from the Mekong River to the Pacific Islands about Beijing's aggressive actions claiming open seas as their own, distorting open markets through subsidies to its state-run companies, denying the exports or revoking deals for countries whose policies it does not agree with,” Blinken said. “Engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities. Countries across the region want this behavior to change. We do, too.”

China competes with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam for sovereignty over parts of the resource-rich sea, which stretches from Hong Kong to Borneo.

Last month, China pledged to avoid dominance in the South China Sea, but experts said the pledge comes too late to convince smaller Southeast Asian claimants to the strategic waterway after years of Chinese expansion.

Blinken said “defending the rules-based order is not to keep any country down,” and that the United States does not seek conflict in the region.

He also discussed efforts to promote fair trade in the Indo-Pacific, to address infrastructure shortcomings that challenge inclusive growth, the need to build resilience to tackle challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and addressing climate change by investing in new types of jobs.

Source: Voice of America

Taiwan and Canada pledged to continue to strengthen supply chain cooperation and deepen bilateral trade and investment ties during an annual economic dialogue held in Taipei on Tuesday.

The pledge was made during the 17th annual Canada-Taiwan Economic Consultations, according to the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei (CTOT), which represents Canadian interests in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties.

On supply chain cooperation, Canada and Taiwan announced plans to undertake a joint supply chain study in sectors of mutual interest.

The two sides discussed the importance of organizing a series of business roundtables beginning next year focused on electric vehicles, 5G, advanced manufacturing and other areas, according to a CTOT press release.

"Canada sees Taiwan as a trusted trading partner and a friend," said CTOT head Jordan Reeves during the meeting.

"As our trade office celebrates 35 years in Taiwan, Canada is looking to maintain an Indo-Pacific region that is inclusive and based on the rule of law, democratic values, the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms," he added.

The Taiwan side was represented by Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi (???).

During the annual meeting, both sides also discussed potential collaboration on the green economy as part of the joint global fight against climate change, according to CTOT.

In line with Taiwan's goal to become bilingual by 2030, and given Canada's status as a bilingual country, CTOT said new high school dual diploma programs are being established under a Canada-Taiwan working group led by Taiwan's Ministry of Education.

The Canadian side also affirmed that Taiwanese students will be eligible to participate in the Study in Canada scholarship program, for the second year in a row.

According to CTOT, Taiwan was Canada's 15th-largest trading partner and its sixth-largest in Asia in 2020.

Canada-Taiwan Economic Consultations have been organized annually since 2005 through the CTOT and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada, the de facto Taiwan embassy in Canada. They engage in exchanges on a wide range of issues, including bilateral investment, agricultural produce and innovation.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

SAN FRANCISCO —

China’s advances in quantum computing will give a new advantage to its armed forces, already the world’s third strongest, analysts say.

Quantum refers to a type of computing that lets high-powered machines make calculations that are too complex for ordinary devices.

The concept discovered by American physicist Richard Feynman in 1980 has two key military uses, the think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a 2019 paper. It can decrypt encoded messages and send cryptographic keys that intercept otherwise secure communication chains, the study says.

“I think the challenge is basically in the dual civilian-military strategy of China where the government will enlist the private sector into its military modernization program,” said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, in Hawaii. “Also, the government of China spends a lot of money in research and development.”

China’s name surfaced last month when IT consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton said that within a decade Chinese “threat groups will likely collect data that enables quantum simulators to discover new economically valuable materials, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals.”

China on the move

It’s unclear how far Chinese researchers have advanced quantum computing, but the Pentagon’s 2021 report to Congress on China says the Asian superpower “continues its pursuit of leadership in key technologies with significant military potential.”

China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, an economic blueprint, prioritizes quantum technology among other new fields, the report to Congress adds, and it intends to install satellite-enabled, global “quantum-encrypted communications capability” by 2030.

Quantum could help detect submarines and stealth aircraft among other “military vehicles,” said Heather West, a senior research analyst with market research firm IDC in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Quantum computing can break “classical algorithms” to check on another country’s military, she told VOA.

The University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei last year made the first “definitive demonstration” of exploiting quantum mechanics for computations that would be “prohibitively slow on classical computers,” the science journal Nature reported. Google and NASA had claimed “quantum supremacy” in 2019.

The state-run China Daily news website said in September the country had “achieved a series of breakthroughs in quantum technology including the world's first quantum satellite, a 2,000-km quantum communication line between Beijing and Shanghai, and the world's first optical quantum computing machine prototype.” China Daily did not mention military use.

China has alarmed other countries in the past by merging civilian and military infrastructure, part of a Military-Civil Fusion Development Strategy that makes it hard for the outside world to judge when academic research will become an asset of the People’s Liberation Army.

Although quantum computing worldwide remains at a “nascent stage,” multiple countries are in a race to develop it, Vuving said. He points to the United States, India, Japan and Germany, in addition to China. Any frontrunners are unlikely to last long, he said, as rivals would quickly copy their breakthroughs.

Multiple countries at risk?

The Booz Allen Hamilton report says many organization leaders and chief information security officers "lack insight into the practical importance of quantum computing and how to manage related risks.”

“They don’t know how and when the technology might become useful — and how it might shape the behavior of threat actors such as China, a persistent cyber adversary of government and commercial organizations globally and a major developer of quantum-computing technology,” the report says.

The People’s Liberation Army maintains the world’s third-strongest armed forces after the United States and Russia, according to the GlobalFirePower.com database. Japan, Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries fret particularly over the expansion of the PLA Navy in disputed tracts of sea. Washington has stepped up military movement in the same seas since 2019 to monitor China’s activities.

“Taiwan, the United States or the European Union are all likely targets for China to launch quantum computing attacks as long as countries do not have robust quantum cryptography to defend,” said Chen Yi-fan, assistant professor of diplomacy and international relations at Tamkang University in Taiwan.

China is already suspected of using cyberattacks against Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing says is part of its territory.

In the military realm outside China, quantum computing forms part of the AUKUS military technology sharing deal among Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. announced in September over Beijing’s objections.

In August 2020, the White House, National Science Foundation and Department of Energy announced it would award $625 million over five years for quantum R&D, the National Defense Industrial Association says.

“We’re seeing a lot of research and development going into the Department of Defense in the U.S.,” West said. “I don’t think they would be pouring the money into it if they didn’t think there was that potential.”

Researchers in Singapore, a well-off city-state, and Taiwan, a world tech hub, are exploring quantum technology as well.

Smaller countries couldn’t compete with China’s quantum computing resources, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at the University of New South Wales in Australia. They would need engineers, technicians and money, he said.

“That’s for the big boys, for the people with money, sophistication, knowledge. Other countries could toy around, but they wouldn’t have the ability to go very far with it, I think,” Thayer said.

Source: Voice of America

Almost 4.96 million votes, will need to be cast in favor of each of the four referendums this weekend if they are to pass, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said Tuesday.

Based on the Referendum Act, one quarter of Taiwan's 19,825,468 eligible voters, meaning those who turned 18 before Aug. 28, must vote "yes" in a given referendum in order for it to be ratified.

By administrative area, New Taipei has the largest number of eligible voters at 3,427,162, followed by 2,353,773 in Kaohsiung, 2,337,667 in Taichung, while Taipei, Taiwan's capital, has 2,155,416 eligible voters, the CEC said in a statement.

Saturday's referendums are the first to be held independent of central or local government elections, following an amendment to the Referendum Act in 2019 that barred the holding of referendums on the same day as national elections.

One of the questions in the upcoming referendum seeks to revoke the amendment so that referendums could again be held concurrently with such elections.

According to the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), the initiator of the referendum on election dates, such a move would decrease costs and increase voter turnout.

The other three questions are on halting construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal (LNG) near an algal reef, banning the import of pork containing traces of the livestock drug ractopamine, and unsealing the long-mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

A British archaeologist who has worked on the conservation of archaeological sites in Taiwan has been awarded a Plum Blossom Card, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said in a statement Tuesday.

Gordon Howard Turner-Walker, now 67, received the special version of the alien permanent resident certificate (APRC) in November under the category of high-level professionals.

Turner-Walker came to Taiwan in 2003 as a visiting professor at National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, and has been a faculty member ever since. He is now a professor at the school's Graduate School of Cultural Heritage Conservation.

During his tenure, the U.K. academic has focused on the conservation and restoration of several archaeological sites and materials, including cultural relics in Beigang Chaotian Temple in Yunlin County and an ancient tomb site in Kimmen.

He is also an English editor at the Journal of Cultural Heritage Conservation and assisted in writing and editing "A Practical Guide to the Care and Conservation of Metals," published by the Executive Yuan in 2008, according to NIA.

As a teacher, Turner-Walker has cultivated the next generation of museum and restoration talent, infusing new energy into Taiwan's teaching of cultural heritage conservation. He was presented the Excellent Teacher Award by the Ministry of Education in 2014, according to NIA.

Turner-Walker sees great potential in the development of professional cultural heritage conservation and restoration in Taiwan from his experience in higher education and government-funded projects, the NIA said.

Turner-Walker received his Ph.D. in Archaeological Science at University of Durham, U.K. in 1993 and has worked in local and university museums, national laboratories and university departments in Europe, Africa and Asia.

The Plum Blossom Card is awarded to foreign nationals who have made special contributions to Taiwan, have high-level professional or technical skills needed by the country, or have invested over NT$15 million (US$504,150) in the country.

Card holders are granted permanent residency and are also eligible to pursue a simplified application process for Taiwanese citizenship, according to the NIA.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel