00:00Since gray zone operations has been so difficult to prove and legally also challenging to make a
00:07case, what do you think Taiwan can do better to respond to this kind of activities?
00:12Again, what China is trying to do is to create what I call a fate-acomplete,
00:19basically establish a fact that anything happened in the Taiwan Strait is considered an internal
00:27affair. So to them, this cutting cable, creating confusions to allies and calling it an internal
00:36affair is basically also making it very hard for international community to react and respond.
00:43And also for gray zone activities and warfare, there isn't any international law regulating such
00:50behavior. And so the actors that carry out these malicious behaviors are also disguised in fishing
01:01boats or commercial cargoes. And also I noted in my testimony that sometimes they cross-registered
01:08in different countries' registration. And all this just, you know, trying to
01:17be difficult for any legal authorities to regulate them. And for Taiwan, obviously we have
01:27enforced through our Coast Guard. But it's not that easy as this type of a gray zone activities
01:34oftentimes happens in the area where you face difficult challenges to really arrest them or to
01:47take action on them. You've recommended that the U.S. pass a Taiwan Undersea Cable Resilience Act.
01:55And also from last year, we've seen Taiwan also amended its cable-related laws. So from your perspective,
02:01what are some of the remaining gaps in international laws when it comes to protecting undersea cables?
02:06As you have mentioned, we have enacted the cable resilience law in Taiwan and it either increased
02:14the penalty or make it a criminal activity if there's any sort of a cable damage and sabotage. But
02:21that's not enough. As I've mentioned, some of these damages and happens in an area that is, first of all,
02:30gray zone. And secondly, it's in international water. So the Taiwan jurisdiction doesn't really apply when
02:37it's happening in international water. So that's why in my congressional testimony, I call for U.S. to
02:43establish the Taiwan Undersea Cable Resilience Act, basically authorize the Congress to mobilize the
02:52resources and also criminalize the activities that would impact the global cable infrastructure. And
03:01secondly, to basically develop joint patrol with Taiwan and allies. For example, Japan and Taiwan Coast
03:13Guards should develop joint patrol programs. And thirdly, for some of those militia boats or fishing boats or
03:23other cargo ships that are disguised in the commercial activities or unregistered or registered with a
03:32multi-domain, should be should be brought in for further examinations as to why it is conducting its
03:45routes in a very ambiguous way and sort of things. And thirdly, Taiwan should develop its own
03:51indigenous cable repair capacity. In my opinion, we should in the next three to five years at least to have
03:58one cable repair ships so that we can repair our own cable and to ensure that we have some redundancy.
04:06Once the cable is cut or damaged or sabotaged, we'll be able to preserve the data or at least have
04:14some
04:14secure storage of those data.
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