Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: UnitreeRobotics/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
THE TAIPEI CITY government has come under scrutiny for plans to roll out robot dogs that would serve as part of sidewalk patrols. Namely, the robot dogs are of Chinese manufacture.
To begin with, it proves an unusual move for the Taipei city government to embrace the idea of robot dogs patrolling the city. Robot dogs, such as those developed by Boston Dynamics, have been criticized for evoking a dystopian atmosphere. Even so, one has seen the gradual introduction of server robots in some Taiwanese restaurants, if not on the same scale as in China.
However, the notion of using the robot dogs as part of patrols quickly came under fire when it emerged that the robot may have been built by Unitree, a Hangzhou-based company. The robot dogs are identical to those produced by Unitree. Unitree products have featured in Chinese state displays, including at state-run Lunar New Year celebrations, in the past.
The Taipei city government backpedaled in response, particularly when it later came to light that only the camera units used on the robot dogs were of Taiwanese manufacture. The Taipei city government has also claimed that the robot dogs would not be connected to the Internet and that it is only currently a proposal to introduce them.
Still, some have warned of the security risks from the robots, which could potentially play a role in mapping Taiwanese streets. Such information would, of course, be useful for planning an invasion.
This is far from the only time that Chinese products have been accused of entering the Taiwanese market posing as other products. In early 2023, Bondee, a social network app allowing users to create virtual avatars and chatrooms in which they can host up to fifty of their friends, came under similar scrutiny with the accusation that it was a Chinese app seeking to enter Taiwan by pretending to be from Singapore. The app claimed to be co-developed by the US and South Korea, as produced by a company called Metadream registered in Singapore.
Specifically, the app’s design highly resembled the Chinese app Jelly (啫喱), which took China by storm in January 2022, becoming even more downloaded than WeChat. At one point, Phoenix Media, which has state investment, also invested in Jelly. Yet Jelly fell from grace after concerns, including privacy concerns, security issues, and other problems, with Chinese users reporting that their private information had been leaked from the app, resulting in spam calls and fraud. This led to the app being removed from the Chinese market in February 2022.
Taiwan currently seeks to bolster its drone capacity, given the role that drones could play in staving off a potential Chinese invasion through asymmetric warfare tactics. At the same time, Taiwan has faced difficulty separating its supply chain from that of China.
But Taiwan has experienced multiple controversies in recent memory over the use of Chinese products in the military or in government facilities. In July 2024, it was found that Chinese-made parts were being used at a number of army bases, in that renewable energy initiatives on military bases used Chinese telecommunications devices. Banned parts were found used in solar energy projects at three facilities, and these included routers, transformers, and data readers, which were located at the Hungchailin Army Base, Pinghai Navy Base, and Tri-Service General Hospital’s Songshan branch. Parts included from Huawei, while other parts were from Taiwanese manufacturers with factories in China, such as Delta Electronics or Advantech, and German company SMA Solar Technology.
In the same timeframe as this scandal, it was found that 800 dashcams manufactured in China were in use by military vehicles. This is not the only time that Chinese cameras have become an issue, either. In 2020, the widespread use of Hikvision security cameras in Taiwan came under fire. 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. This appears to have occurred due to insufficient vetting in the public tender process. Museum exhibitions tendered to companies with links to China have also led to concerns that Chinese surveillance technology would be incorporated into interactive displays.