An Assessment of Cyberpower within the Triangular Relations of Taiwan–US–China and Its Implications

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to assess the change in the cyberpower dynamics between Taiwan, the US, and China. Given Taiwan’s decision to establish the Information, Communications and Electronic Warfare Command to counter China’s cyberthreat in 2017, there is very little scholarly work regarding the context of Taiwan’s cybersecurity challenge. Not only are cyberweapons and capabilities not viewable and quantifiable in the direct sense as numbers of submarines or aircraft, but also the problem of attribution in cyberspace creates an epistemological limitation in explaining the origin of cyberattacks. Hence, this paper engages with Taiwan’s conception of cyberspace and submits a general review of cyberpower. It concludes that the shift in the cyberpower dynamics between Taiwan, the US, and China has contributed to Taiwan’s fear and changed Taiwan’s threat perception.