Need To Know Now: January 10th
Our inaugural edition touches on South Korean drone defence, Taiwanese satellites, Japan's response to disinformation, China’s IT systems challenge, and rare earth supply chains.
South Korea & drone defence
Taiwan & satellites
Japan & disinformation
China’s IT systems
Rare earth supply chains
South Korea & drone defence
“South Korea will spend 560 billion won ($441m) on improving its defences against drones, the country’s defence ministry said on Wednesday, after a military scare from the North that set off jitters in Seoul.”
“On Monday, five North Korean drones entered the South’s airspace, prompting the military to scramble fighter jets and attack helicopters. But the South’s response failed to bring any of the drones down…”
Taiwan & satellites
“We are going to spin our low-Earth orbit satellite communications project off into a company,” said a senior official at TASA. People familiar with the talks said the government wanted to retain a significant minority stake in the venture.
“We look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how Starlink has been used very successfully,” said Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s digital minister.”
Japan & disinformation
“The Foreign Ministry will launch an AI-powered system in fiscal 2023 to collect and analyze fake information on social media and other platforms, allowing it to track how foreign actors are trying to influence public opinion over the medium to long term.”
“In response to recent moves by China and Russia, Japan's National Security Strategy, approved in December, includes plans to bolster the country's ability to respond to ‘warfare in the cognitive domain, including spread of disinformation.’”
China’s IT systems
“The tightening U.S. sanctions have forced the market to conclude that Chinese companies need to replace their systems as much as possible, including PCs, servers, routers, chips, operating systems, databases and industrial software, a person familiar with China's policy told Caixin.”
Download: Rare earth supply chains
“Japanese and South Korean firms have formed private-public partnerships to expand critical mineral supply chains around the world, decreasing their vulnerability to manufacturing chokepoints.”
“Australia is a key partner, with rich resource endowments, technical expertise, and transparent and reliable governance. The U.S. should proactively expand existing partnerships and seek new ones.”
