Taiwan-China Cross-Strait Tensions

Chinese AI Tool ARTEX Targets Japan While Taiwan Faces 2.5 Million Cyberattacks

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Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has declared a national “cyber emergency” as a wave of breaches hits major companies, while Taiwan reports a sharp rise in China-originated disinformation and cyber activity ahead of its local elections. In Japan, investigators have linked some attacks to ARTEX, a Chinese-developed AI penetration-testing tool also reported in breaches targeting South Korean financial firms. Taipei, meanwhile, says disputed or false information originating from China rose by roughly 48 percent in the first nine months of 2026, alongside millions of daily probes against government networks. Similar concerns are also emerging elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific, including a reported China-linked breach of a regional organization in Fiji. In this episode, we examine how AI is changing cyberwarfare, how Japan and Taiwan are responding and whether closer regional cooperation can keep pace with increasingly sophisticated digital threats. *Recorded on October 29, 2026 at 3pm Taiwan Standard Time Host: Wen-Ti Sung Producer: Suvam Pal Videographer: Damon Lin Our guests: Crystal Tu - Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR) Assistant Research Fellow Athena Tong - University of Tokyo Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) Visiting Researcher