Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: 微型樂園 micro+playground/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
CONCERNS HAVE BEEN raised about data security and privacy regarding an exhibition in Kaohsiung about China’s Terracotta Army. The exhibition is at the National Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung.
Controversy broke out after a press conference by Kaohsiung city councilor Chang Po-yang of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party on the matter. Chang cited the potential risks to data privacy from the use of facial recognition in the exhibition. Namely, part of the exhibition features a digital exhibit in which visitors can scan their faces, to compare them to that of the faces of the terracotta soldiers, suggesting that visitors could potentially meet their past selves in this way.
Chang cited that the data could potentially be sent to China, to be added to Chinese databases. To this extent, Chang brought up that a number of the organizations involved in the exhibition have been accused of involvement in Chinese United Front efforts in the past. That is, three of the four organizations involved in organizing the exhibition are Chinese organizations, two of which are headed by members of the Chinese Communist Party. These are the Shaanxi Cultural Artifact Exchange Foundation and the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation. The China Soong Ching Ling Foundation states in its charter that it has the political reunification of China as its goal and it has been accused of being a United Front organization in the past.
One of the four organizations is Taiwanese, but this is the Chinese Hanwei Culture Promotion Association, which rented the space for the exhibition. However, the Chinese Hanwei Culture Promotion Association attended the 20th National Congress of the CCP in 2022, as representing Taiwan, and there representatives of the association expressed approval of Xi Jinping’s calls for the political reunification of Taiwan and China.
Consequently, the Ministry of Education has been criticized for a lack of oversight. The contract for the exhibition states that “the special exhibition may not use Chinese information and communications technology products, including software, hardware, and other services.” The National Science and Technology Museum has demanded an explanation from the Chinese Hanwei Culture Promotion Association and stated that if corrections are not made, the exhibition will be terminated.
Specifically, concerns are regarding software used in the exhibit, as Taiwanese companies Chimei and Aplustek made the hardware for the exhibit. The exhibit has been suspended until there is proof that the software does not involve images uploaded and sent to China.
National Science and Technology Museum. Photo credit: SSR2000/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
This is not the first time that the use of Chinese technology has caused controversy in Taiwan. In 2020, following criticisms by DPP city councilor Huang Shou-da, there was increased scrutiny on the widespread use of Hikvision security cameras in Taiwan. Hikvision is a Chinese brand and there were fears regarding Hikvision routing footage through Chinese servers. It was found that 1,089 Hikvision cameras were in use at 309 schools or agencies. In the years since then, Hikvision was later hit by US sanctions affecting 180 countries over the use of Hikvision products in Xinjiang as part of the surveillance state targeting Uyghurs in China.
Similarly in 2022, the use of Chinese parts and software for the luggage self-check-in system at Taoyuan International Airport led to controversy. DPP legislator Lin Chun-hsien was among those to sound the alarm on the issue, criticizing insufficient vetting during the public tender for upgrading the self-check-in system. This involved machinery parts and software made by the subsidiary of a Chinese arms manufacturer, China North Industries Corporation (Norinco), with machines built in China, but then disassembled and shipped to Taiwan. The logic controller for the system was programmed by a Japanese company, but using programming originally designed by Norinco, which caused concerns that there could be backdoors in this software.
A report by the Executive Yuan in May 2021 found that 19,256 devices made in China were used in 2,596 schools, local governments, and other institutions. 1,848 cameras or drones made by Da-Jiang Innovations Technology were used by 717 universities, and 1,632 computer networking systems were used by TP-Link Technologies. Some schools refused to remove the cameras after being informed of the issue.
After many years of delays in legislation on the matter, a ban on Chinese-made products in government took place on January 1st, 2022. As seen with the Kaohsiung exhibit, however, there are still concerns regarding the use of Chinese software, and such issues may recur. This is partly due to bureaucracy, as well as the close interconnection of Taiwanese and Chinese software and hardware supply chains. Frequent cost-cutting for public tenders that occurs in Taiwan has also sometimes incentivized companies to try and pass off cheaper Chinese products as Taiwanese, even when there are safety or security risks.