Taiwan Digital Minister: 鈥榃e are on the front line鈥�
Minister Audrey Tang warns Taiwan faces 鈥渃ontinuous鈥� cyber-attacks from China.
Taiwan faces 鈥渃yber-attacks everyday鈥� from Beijing, the island's Digital Minister Audrey Tang has told the 大象传媒.
Relations between Taipei and Beijing are fraught. Taiwan lies 160km (100 miles) over the water from China and Beijing claims it as part of its territory.
China has carried out hundreds of military sorties close to the self-governed island in recent months, leading to speculation Beijing might be readying for an assault.
Asked by the Hardtalk programme鈥檚 Zeinab Badawi if Taiwan was effectively engaged in a cyber-war with China, Minister Tang said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 quite continuous. For example, when the US Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited, we鈥檝e seen on one single day the peak 23 times higher than the previous peak of distributed denial of service attacks鈥�.
鈥淭here is a renewed interest in strengthening our cyber-security,鈥� she said.
Tensions between the US and China have been high in recent months, especially after the unprecedented visit to Taipei by the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
China conducted large-scale military exercises in response to Ms Pelosi's visit, something Taiwan condemned as 鈥減rovocative".
