Taiwan ups the ante on Defence as China resorts to Cyber attacks amid bid to gain control

Tensions between Taipei and Beijing have been at an all-time high since US House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi's visit to the self-ruled Island nation on August 2, 2022. The visit itself had garnered much international attention, considering Pelosi's arrival in Taiwan in spite of repeated warnings from Beijing that there would be 'serious consequences'. China has been outspoken regarding its intention relating to Taiwan and displeasure with US’ interference on the Taiwan issue. It had termed US’ actions as ‘Playing with Fire’. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had remarked that "becoming enemies of the 1.4 billion Chinese people, will never end well." 

Following Pelosi's visit, China had initiated the largest-ever military drill in the Taiwan strait which had begun with the Chinese military encircling Taiwan from six areas that it had designated as “Danger-zones”. Furthermore, China resorted to firing multiple Dongfeng-class ballistic missiles which flew over Taiwan and landed into Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and violated the nation’s airspace several times as Chinese jets flew in and out of the zones. The Chinese drills had culminated on August 10 after a ‘show of force’ which was condemned by the G7 nations. 

China engages in Cyberwarfare against Taiwan

In addition to a direct ‘Show of force’, China has also reportedly been engaged in cyber-attacks against Taiwan. The island nation’s companies and government websites were the first to perceive the brunt of the cyber attacks as 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan had received messages reading “Warmonger Pelosi, get out of Taiwan”. Electronic billboards across the country were also hacked. Additionally, the websites of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the presidential office were also hacked and shut down for a short duration. 

The experience of these cyber-attacks has forced Taiwan to reconsider the strength of its firewalls and cyber-security preparedness. In a statement, a professor of computer studies at National Chung Cheng University, Wang Ming-hung warned, “If power plants, hospitals, and transportation are hacked, the damage would be significant.”

In order to upgrade its resilience, Taiwan has decided to raise its defence spending by 15% next year. Reportedly, Taiwan is set to focus on safeguarding the nation against the existent threat of China’s cyber operations against the country that threatens sensitive data leakage, misinformation, online service suspension and espionage. 

Furthermore, Taipei has initiated the formation of a cybersecurity agency inside the newly established Ministry of Digital Affairs. It will be headed by hacker-turned-cabinet member Audrey Tang. The agency is set to hire an initial 150 cybersecurity specialists. The immediate necessity of such a step can be realised through the fact that it will see a sharp hike from the 20 staff it had at a cabinet-affiliated cybersecurity center.

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