ExclusiveTaiwan Boosts Unmanned Sea Drones | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Kerry Dunst, in for Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, unmanned drones have changed the dynamics of the war in Ukraine. Now, maritime drones could play a decisive role in Taiwan's defense if a conflict breaks out across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan already taking steps to prepare. It must be China free, the platform end to end. The U.S. and Japan stepping up their deterrence efforts. The two allies plan to establish a joint production facility in Japan to manufacture missiles essential to the F-35 fighter jet. That is by definition peace through strength. Social media accounts posing as American voters. So who's behind those accounts? We'll look at the research released just ahead of the election. And as Xi Jinping tightens control over China's ruling party, the sweeping shakeup raises questions about his next moves to consolidate power. Halloween in America means trick or treating. However, in China, police are stopping, questioning, and detaining people in costume. Before we dive into today's news, a quick announcement. Due to Tuesday's midterm elections, we will not air China In Focus that day. Instead, Tiffany Meyer will host special election coverage Tuesday night. For more details, visit NTD.com slash TV. If you want to watch us on television, visit NTD.tv. There you can find your local channel information. The war in Ukraine has demonstrated just how critical unmanned drones have become in modern warfare. For Taiwan, the lesson is clearer. Rapidly develop its own unmanned weapon systems, particularly maritime drones, to help defend against a potential invasion across the Taiwan Strait. What we have right now is still the crew vessel and so the personnel. We need to save them. for the most important missions, save the life also. So that uncrewed system is really important. Uncrewed maritime systems, AI and domestic defense tech, experts say Taiwan needs to develop these capabilities rapidly to counter growing Chinese threats, particularly Beijing's so-called gray zone tactics. These tactics are designed to assert China's sovereignty claims while staying below the threshold of open conflict That includes sending Coast Guard vessels, research ships, or mass fishing boats into the waters around Taiwan rather than fully deploying military warships. This is one of the situations where Taiwanese sea drones can join the game. One sea drone maker, STR8 Industries, moved its business from the U.S. to Taiwan. Its founder said it has been leveraging Taiwan's manufacturing prowess, one of the reasons to come to the island. The track record of high-end manufacturing, electronics, computing, and again, the industry in shipbuilding. So this is the best place for us to go to build. How does the company deal with Chinese parts for sea drones? As China is dominating the unmanned vehicle supply chain, another co-founder of the company says there is non-negotiable rule. Many clients would say, and users, that it's a non-negotiable. It must be China-free, the platform end-to-end. From the economic perspective, Taiwan sits on one of the most important shipping routes in the global supply chain. China sees Taiwan as part of China, while Taiwan rejects that. And they see itself as a de facto independently governed country with its own constitution and elected president. Back in 2021, U.S. Admiral Philip Davidson, then head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, warned that China could invade Taiwan within the next six years. Then-CIA Director William Burns in 2023 corroborated Admiral Davidson's warnings by saying Xi Jinping told China's PLA to be ready for a Taiwan invasion by 2027. It's almost the end of 2026 and people are now beginning to doubt this timeline, especially after seeing Xi purge China's top military leadership. And the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's 2026 annual threat assessment that, quote, China leaders do not currently plan to execute invasion of Taiwan in 2027, nor do they have a fixed timeline for achieving unification. But that doesn't mean the U.S. is leaving Taiwan up to chance. Speaking at the TechNet Indo-Pacific Conference in Honolulu, U.S. General Ronald Clark, the head of the U.S. Army Pacific, he says the threat of a Chinese invasion is still very valid. According to General Clark, the Army has been preparing to defend Taiwan through an initiative called Army Ready Forward by pre-positioning equipment, materials, and personnel on the first and second island chains closest to China. His goal? Be ready by April 2027. This means getting more of both expensive high-end systems as well as the cheap mass-produced ones with the aim of deterring China from even starting an invasion in the first place. Now, the U.S. military, across all its other branches, are likewise taking similar steps in preparation for a Pacific conflict. The U.S. is also training with regional allies, including Japan, Australia, and the Philippines, and they're forming agreements with other countries to produce more missiles and drones. The U.S. and Japan stepping up their deterrence in the face of an increasingly aggressive China. They agreed to set up a facility in Japan to make advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles together, weapons essential for F-35 fighter jets. Japan's defense minister calling the deal groundbreaking. I shared a sense of crisis with Secretary Hegseth regarding the increasingly severe regional situation, and we agreed to strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. alliance. It's the same. Near Japan, China has been boosting its military power, both in quality and quantity, and an even closer neighbor, North Korea, they've tested ballistic missiles over 10 times this year. In the meantime, the U.S. has been burning through its missile stockpile in Ukraine and the Middle East, sparking concerns among Asian allies that this could embolden China. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reassured its Asian allies that the U.S. stands ready to support them with what he calls a strong, quiet, and clear approach. Clear enough that our friends, our partners, and potential adversaries understand precisely where the United States stands and that we will defend our interests and the interests of our allies and partners. That is, by definition, peace through strength. Being able to churn out missiles in Japan would make it easier to resupply troops in a potential conflict over Taiwan. The U.S. and Japan also agreed to share technical information to ramp up production of SM-3 missiles, which warships use to intercept incoming ballistic missiles. Driving Japan's sense of urgency is growing Chinese as well as North Korean aggression. Three Chinese naval vessels, including a guided missile destroyer, along with one China Coast Guard vessel, passed through the Osumi Strait off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture. And it's the first time Japan's defense ministry has publicly reported such an incident. Up in the airspace, a surge of violations by Chinese and Russian aircraft. Japan scrambled fighter jets over 400 times from April to September of this year, and that's in response to Chinese and Russian drones as well as aircraft. Just three months ago, China conducted a live-fire drill in waters just 100 miles from a Japanese atoll between Taiwan and Guam. Chinese and Japanese Coast Guard vessels also faced off in waters near disputed Senkaku Islands. And over in the West, North Korea fired 10 short-range ballistic missiles into the waters between it and Japan. Tokyo is lodging a strong protest over that. Old accounts, new targets. A report finds China-linked influence operations are using repurposed social media accounts to pose as American voters ahead of the midterm elections. They found those same accounts are now amplifying posts about immigration, mass shootings, and election integrity. One account called culture once posted about Philippine food and culture. After going silent for two years, it returned with pro-Beijing messages, then turned to US politics. It posted content both supporting and criticizing President Trump, along with an AI-generated video portraying America as an oligarchy. China's Communist Party has wrapped up a major leadership meeting last Thursday, confirming the expulsion of 33 officials in a record purge. As Xi Jinping tightens his control over the ruling party, the sweeping shakeup raises new questions about his next move to consolidate power. Only 279 of the 376 full alternate central committee members elected in 22 attended. That's a 25.8% absence rate. Five of the seven members of China's Central Military Commission, which were appointed back in 2022, have now been purged. They include former Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia and former Defense Minister Li Shangfu. The party also elevated Discipline Official Zhang Shangmin to the Politburo, signaling the growing importance of internal oversight. The meeting sent a clear message. Loyalty to the party leadership comes first. Analysts say Xi is demanding greater political loyalty, tighter discipline, and stronger execution of his policies. Meanwhile, the party also pledged tougher oversight of the tech sector, including crypto, cross-border funds, and blockchain technology. The meeting sets the stage now for China's 21st Party Congress in 2027, when Xi is widely expected to seek a fourth unprecedented term. Analysts say his ambitions may go beyond securing another term in power. He also wants to ensure that China's future leaders remain firmly aligned with his political vision. And while Americans celebrated Halloween with costumes, candy, and street parties, Chinese police were busy stopping and detaining people who dressed up for the occasion. Halloween in China has become something authorities seem increasingly afraid of. In Xi'an, police forced a man dressed as a COVID-era health worker to remove his protective suit. In Hongdu, officers took away a person dressed as the Japanese superhero Ultraman. In Tianjin, a Trump impersonator was questioned by the police. And over in Shanghai, two women in costumes were reportedly taken away as crowds surrounded a police vehicle shouting, release them. In public gatherings, political debate and protests face strict restrictions. Cosplay and memes become alternative channels of expression. Young Chinese are turning Halloween into a street-level satire of everyday life. Some costumes mocked a job recruitment platform as a scam. Others dressed as falling stock charts and mock trading platforms. Authorities responded with heavy police deployments, street barriers and restrictions on Halloween costumes. The question is, are they afraid of Halloween? What people might say. Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, said it had covered $6 billion of the $6.3 billion stolen last week. It didn't use any advanced tech to get that money back from the hacker, but used its own company money to buy replacement tokens. $6.3 billion, it's the largest cryptocurrency heist in industry history. The FBI confirmed a North Korean hacking group stole it from Binance. To discuss this, I spoke with Kyler Schmitz. He's vice president of AI company Patmos for more insights. We're still learning a lot of details about how specifically these systems were compromised, but one thing is really clear. We're seeing an uptick in the frequency of these incidents, as well as the severity of them. A lot of that can be attributed to the use of artificial intelligence tools in identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in software. So when code is written, whether that's in a crypto exchange like Binance, software that's on your computer, There is opportunity for mistakes to be made in that code that leave doors open. And a human being can identify these doors, but an AI can really identify these doors. So what was used, what specific tools, what specific methods of attack? We're still learning a lot, but one thing is really clear is that these are becoming more frequent and hackers are finding new and different ways to exploit vulnerable code in applications that run on everything from infrastructure to financial platforms, like what we've seen with Binance. And of course, as you point out, this attack on crypto, recent attacks also include military bases, power grids, water grids, even grocery store refrigeration, resulting in tons of spoiled food. So what more should institutions and organizations be doing to secure their networks? What's really interesting about these attacks is that not all of them are made with a demand or some sort of request. The attacks in France and what the Pentagon has been tracking as a potential cyber attack on cooling equipment just shows that anything that runs critical infrastructure is vulnerable. And so organizations need to be mindful of that, that this is not just a corporate laptop or a server that's at risk of being compromised. Critical infrastructure that cools that server, that powers that laptop, is now in the crosshairs. And just like you would have an application on your laptop or your phone that needs to be updated, organizations need to make sure that they're updating the software and the security procedures around that critical infrastructure. So we have to think a lot more broadly about how we secure these assets, not just what we traditionally have thought of, but when we're looking at cooling equipment, heating equipment. Yeah, and as we switch from large organizations and corporations, even grocery stores, but now to like the consumer lens, you know, unless you're the Amish, which actually they may be onto something, you're using some kind of online service, whether it's banking, payments like Zelle or Venmo, Apple Pay, you know, just. Just checking the news and the weather, what should consumers and individuals be doing to protect themselves and their family? First and foremost, be aware of how your data is being used. And so one of the things that we really advocate for here at Patmos, not just through the lens of cybersecurity, but just business practice and consumer data, is understand how your data is being used. Make sure that you're not putting it in places that are vulnerable. There's risk with anything. Someone can take a sticky note off your desk that has a password, or they can get to it through a vulnerability on software and compromise your online presence. So risk is out there, but consumers need to make sure they're doing business with organizations that take security seriously, that architect their systems with that first and foremost in mind, but then also take personal responsibility for how you store your data. Don't send credit card information over email. You know, there's some common sense things out there that we all forget about on a day-to-day basis, but this needs to be front of mind because we're only going to see an increase in these types of exploits. And just for the layman who, you know, may be using that same password across a couple of different services, what are just some real, as you point out, common sense things, but that actually gets the majority of people? What are just like two or three really basic things that everybody can do that would make a huge difference in protecting themselves and their family? First and foremost, don't give your data to organizations that are not credible and that don't take security seriously. And these types of exploits can happen anywhere, but you want to make sure you know who you're doing business with when you hand over personal information. The second thing that we can all do is what enterprise organizations have already learned, which is rotate your passwords, don't use family names, don't use common phrases. Thank you. And then again, the absolute foolproof way of this is where you have sensitive data, make sure that you're not putting that in an online forum unless it's absolutely necessary and with an institution that is built to handle that type of sensitive data. And Binance is really interesting because they are architected as a security-first organization. And so we're going to learn a lot as we learn more about how this was actually exploited and the methods that were used. But we just don't have that detail yet. And as we start to round up, we're heading into the holiday season. It'll be here in just a few weeks. Are there particular risks that tend to heighten during that heightened period as people are rushing to get those gifts in time and maybe not taking as much care as they normally would because of how busy they are? 100%. And I can't really speak to that from a professional sense outside of we do see like with increased commercial velocity, more money being spent means more opportunity to do bad things if you're a bad actor. You know, I personally even get emails pretending to be the CEO of our company asking me to buy Amazon gift cards. There's an element of common sense when we approach these things, but some of these hackers are really clever. So it is very much important for the average American, the average global citizen to be. Aware that these risks exist and going into the holidays that there probably is going to be an increase in frequency. So very well said I got that same request for gift cards for my CEO. Turns out it wasn't my CEO. All right, Kyler Schmitz, thank you so much for joining breaking this all down. Coming up, midterm elections in the US are upon us and control of the Senate hangs on just a handful of key races in places that voted heavily for President Trump just two years ago. What does the final map mean for legislation and confirmations? We spoke with political scientist Aaron Dusso. Next, more on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Kerry Dunst, in for Tiffany Meyer. The midterm election campaign is heating up, with Tuesday marking one of the most crucial days of voting. The results could significantly impact U.S. politics, both domestically and internationally. To discuss the key races, NTD's Steph Fox was joined by Aaron Dusso, an associate professor of political science at Indiana University, Indianapolis. Let's take a look. Let's start by walking through the Senate map right now. Democrats need a net four seats. Which races are the true tipping points and why? Yeah, I mean, there's several races that are true toss-ups. You're talking about Maine, Ohio, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Alaska. All of these are complete toss-ups. We don't know what's going to happen until we can count the votes. And so what's interesting about all of those races is that they're held by Republicans. And so there's more than enough races available to Democrats in order to get that four seats that they need to gain. And some of them really, some states were actually held very well by President Trump in the general election. So what do you say about the shifts there and why some of them have become more competitive? Yeah, I mean, polling is one thing. But when we watch President Trump in Kansas and Iowa on the last weekend before the election, that tells us more than any polls can. And that's what it's telling us, that this is an election that is going to be a struggle for Republicans. And they're trying to defend turf that they haven't had to defend in decades right now. And so we've seen a significant change. And I would attribute lots of that's going to be, of course, to the state of the economy and inflation. Inflation ate up the Biden administration, and prices haven't Haven't come down since Trump. Yeah. Now, in terms of turnout and voting patterns, who needs to show up for Republicans to hold the majority and which groups could deliver unexpected Democratic gains potentially? Well, I mean, ultimately, and I think it's what, you know, the reason why President Trump was in Iowa and Kansas, you need the base, you need Trump's base ultimately to show up because, you know, it's his ability and his connection to his base that has really carried the Republican Party for the last decade. And so if those individuals are starting to stay home across the country, no matter where it is, that's big trouble for Republicans. everywhere. And I think that's ultimately his final pitch this weekend, is that, you know, you've been supporting me for a decade. You need to go out there and do it one more time. All right. Now, which strategies in the final, say, 24 to 36 hours? What final messages are the campaigns emphasizing? You mentioned a few of the key issues for voters at the moment, but which ones tend to move the remaining undecideds, do you think? I mean, at this point, so much is baked in because our elections are really a full month. You know, many states have started voting already a month ago. And states like New York, you'll have half of people who have probably voted by this point in time. So there's not a lot of voters left. But, you know, final pitches, of course, are hitting your key issues. Right. So this is Democrats are going to be hitting the economy and inflation and reminding people over and over again that they're paying more at the grocery store than they have. You know, in a long, long time, whereas Republicans are going to go back to more basics. You know, a lot of Republicans actually have distanced themselves from President Trump because of his low approval ratings. So even I see even here in Indiana, which is ruby red, Republicans are running really just on the basic fiscal conservatism that they've run on for decades. So it's a lot of basic kind of pitches that we're seeing from Republicans. Okay, and if Democrats flip the Senate, what changes immediately for legislation, the budget, and judicial or executive confirmations over the next two years? Well, I mean, executive confirmations, because they have to go through the Senate, is, you know, going to... grind to a halt, you know, in a lot of ways. There'll certainly be a lot more scrutiny on anyone who is nominated by the president. If there becomes a Supreme Court vacancy during this time, it's clearly they're going to have, if it's going to be filled, it's going to be filled through a compromise between the Democrats in the Senate and the president. We'll see if that actually happens, though. But the reality is, is beyond, you know, confirmations and that kind of thing, you're talking about, you know, legislation, it's going to be difficult to pass anything Because ultimately, if you want to pass a law, it has to go just not just. That's all for today's China In Focus. I'm Cary Dunst.