{"id":51741,"topic":"ai","source":"Taipei Times","title":"Taiwan key to US-led AI efforts: think tank - Taipei Times","url":"https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","url_hash":"1fd1cc3459fb118dd0de7cc2a7ab24a66beaeef9","author":"","summary":"Taiwan key to US-led AI efforts: think tank Taipei Times","content":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy.\nChina is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.\nIn a co-authored article titled “How the US Can Counter China’s Emerging Tech Trap,” published on Thursday last week by The Diplomat, the two urge the US to work with partners such as Taiwan to build an open, resilient and diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power.\nPhoto: Reuters\nDiscussion over how Washington should respond to China’s rapidly advancing AI capabilities has intensified, partly after Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI unveiled its Kimi K3 model, which has narrowed the gap with models developed by US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.\nChina has entered a new phase of strategic competition, Cronin and Lai said. Following the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is seeking to export an entire AI ecosystem including chips, cloud infrastructure, foundation models, standards, applications, workforce training and governance.\nThey warn that the deeper countries become embedded in this infrastructure, the harder it would be to break away. If the Belt and Road Initiative created debt traps, Beijing’s latest initiative could produce an even more consequential “technology trap,” they said.\nThe article identifies China’s emerging AI diplomacy as centered on the newly established World AI Cooperation Organization, supported by AI application centers, open-source models, technical training, digital standards and infrastructure assistance. The authors describe this as the latest evolution of Beijing’s overarching strategy, combining diplomacy with the AI technology stack.\nAlthough Washington and Beijing remain engaged in managed competition in the Indo-Pacific region, Cronin and Lai said that the decisive contest is no longer limited to the military balance in the western Pacific. Instead, it concerns who would shape the technological foundations of future economies, governments and societies. Countries that establish leadership in AI and other critical technologies would gain lasting economic, military and geopolitical influence, they said.\nChina’s AI diplomacy serves several strategic objectives, including enhancing domestic technological self-sufficiency, expanding the global reach of Chinese companies, creating long-term dependence among developing countries and increasing Beijing’s geopolitical influence, they said.\nThe UK’s AI Security Institute estimates that China’s gap with the US in frontier AI models has narrowed from about nine months to four or five months.\nHowever, Cronin and Lai said that the competition is not simply about developing the world’s most powerful AI model. Rather, it is about whether dozens of emerging economies would build their digital infrastructure around an ecosystem ultimately shaped by the Chinese Communist Party. Countries that align their digital futures with China’s AI ecosystem risk not only commercial dependence but also political leverage, they added.\nTo compete globally, the authors say the US and its allies must offer not only advanced technologies, but also coordinated standards, financing, infrastructure and long-term strategic planning. They point to initiatives such as Pax Silica, which aims to bolster semiconductor and critical mineral supply chains, as well as the US innovation ecosystem led by companies including Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.\nWashington also needs a comprehensive AI diplomacy strategy to help countries develop sovereign digital capabilities without becoming dependent on any single authoritarian technology ecosystem, they said, adding that establishing a dedicated AI stack development fund to help partners finance secure and interoperable AI infrastructure could be the answer.\nThe article says the US advantage lies in offering openness rather than coercion, interoperability rather than exclusivity, and resilient partnerships rather than political leverage. Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan and other partners contribute world-class capabilities in semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, cloud infrastructure, AI applications and digital governance, they said.\nTogether, these countries could provide an open, resilient and genuinely diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power, they added.\nThe first batch of individual income tax refunds for this tax season is to be deposited on Friday, covering more than 3.65 million cases and totaling NT$61.24 billion (US$1.89 billion), with an average refund of NT$16,745 per case, the National Taxation Bureau of Kaohsiung said. After the annual individual income tax filing deadline, regional tax bureaus process refunds in three batches based on the filing method used by taxpayers, the bureau said, adding that the three batches are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30, and Jan. 20 next year. The first batch covers taxpayers who completed online filing before June 1, those who\nNEW AND IMPROVED: The N700ST is based on Japan’s N700S Shinkansen, and features a lighter design, better energy efficiency and upgraded accessibility facilities The first set of N700ST high-speed rail carriages, scheduled to arrive in Taiwan next month, would begin service on July 1 next year, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday. THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) made the remarks during a ceremony in Hitachi Ltd’s Kasado Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, where he and Hitachi Railway Systems Business Unit CEO Giuseppe Marino unveiled the locomotive of the first N700ST train. More than 200 guests attended the unveiling. “The first set of N700ST trains will soon be shipped to Taiwan from the prefecture’s Kasado Port. Hopefully, all the required tests will be completed successfully\nTaiwan has suspended visa processing for Moroccan nationals in response to Morocco halting visa applications for Taiwanese travelers worldwide, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Moroccan embassy in Japan on Thursday last week informed Taiwanese travel agencies that it would suspend its visa confirmation letter application service for Taiwanese seeking to travel to Morocco, the ministry said in a statement. Taiwanese are required to obtain a visa confirmation letter before traveling to Morocco, the Bureau of Consular Affairs Web site says. Applications are submitted through the Moroccan Embassy in Japan, which forwards them to authorities in Morocco for review. Once approved,\nRELIGIOUS GROUNDS: Followers of the I-Kuan Tao are especially advised not to travel to China, following a 50 percent surge in religious detentions in three months Nineteen people have been detained in China in the past three months because of their religious beliefs, representing a 50 percent surge from the previous three months, Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) said yesterday. The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee invited the foundation, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and other agencies to deliver a report on the government’s response to the growing number of missing Taiwanese citizens in China. From Jan. 1, 2024, to Wednesday last week, 402 people have gone missing, been detained for questioning or imprisoned in China, MAC data showed. Of the total cases, 154 are missing, 32 have","image_url":"https://img.taipeitimes.com/images/2026/08/03/p02-260803-aaa1.jpg","lang":"en","published_at":"2026-08-02T16:00:00+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-08-02T18:15:04+00:00","status":"read","starred":0,"extract_state":"ok","summary_auto":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy. China is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.","cluster_id":null,"extract_retries":0,"extract_error":null,"contract_version":"news_item.v1","format_contract_version":"news_item_formats.v1","dedup_url":"https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 7649 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":7649,"summary_length":421,"usable_text_length":7649,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":7649,"summary_length":421}},"news_item":{"id":51741,"canonical_url":"https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","source_url":"https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","title":"Taiwan key to US-led AI efforts: think tank - Taipei Times","source_name":"Taipei Times","author":null,"published_at":"2026-08-02T16:00:00+00:00","locale":"en","topic":"ai","tags":[],"rss_summary":"Taiwan key to US-led AI efforts: think tank Taipei Times","full_text":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy.\nChina is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.\nIn a co-authored article titled “How the US Can Counter China’s Emerging Tech Trap,” published on Thursday last week by The Diplomat, the two urge the US to work with partners such as Taiwan to build an open, resilient and diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power.\nPhoto: Reuters\nDiscussion over how Washington should respond to China’s rapidly advancing AI capabilities has intensified, partly after Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI unveiled its Kimi K3 model, which has narrowed the gap with models developed by US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.\nChina has entered a new phase of strategic competition, Cronin and Lai said. Following the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is seeking to export an entire AI ecosystem including chips, cloud infrastructure, foundation models, standards, applications, workforce training and governance.\nThey warn that the deeper countries become embedded in this infrastructure, the harder it would be to break away. If the Belt and Road Initiative created debt traps, Beijing’s latest initiative could produce an even more consequential “technology trap,” they said.\nThe article identifies China’s emerging AI diplomacy as centered on the newly established World AI Cooperation Organization, supported by AI application centers, open-source models, technical training, digital standards and infrastructure assistance. The authors describe this as the latest evolution of Beijing’s overarching strategy, combining diplomacy with the AI technology stack.\nAlthough Washington and Beijing remain engaged in managed competition in the Indo-Pacific region, Cronin and Lai said that the decisive contest is no longer limited to the military balance in the western Pacific. Instead, it concerns who would shape the technological foundations of future economies, governments and societies. Countries that establish leadership in AI and other critical technologies would gain lasting economic, military and geopolitical influence, they said.\nChina’s AI diplomacy serves several strategic objectives, including enhancing domestic technological self-sufficiency, expanding the global reach of Chinese companies, creating long-term dependence among developing countries and increasing Beijing’s geopolitical influence, they said.\nThe UK’s AI Security Institute estimates that China’s gap with the US in frontier AI models has narrowed from about nine months to four or five months.\nHowever, Cronin and Lai said that the competition is not simply about developing the world’s most powerful AI model. Rather, it is about whether dozens of emerging economies would build their digital infrastructure around an ecosystem ultimately shaped by the Chinese Communist Party. Countries that align their digital futures with China’s AI ecosystem risk not only commercial dependence but also political leverage, they added.\nTo compete globally, the authors say the US and its allies must offer not only advanced technologies, but also coordinated standards, financing, infrastructure and long-term strategic planning. They point to initiatives such as Pax Silica, which aims to bolster semiconductor and critical mineral supply chains, as well as the US innovation ecosystem led by companies including Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.\nWashington also needs a comprehensive AI diplomacy strategy to help countries develop sovereign digital capabilities without becoming dependent on any single authoritarian technology ecosystem, they said, adding that establishing a dedicated AI stack development fund to help partners finance secure and interoperable AI infrastructure could be the answer.\nThe article says the US advantage lies in offering openness rather than coercion, interoperability rather than exclusivity, and resilient partnerships rather than political leverage. Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan and other partners contribute world-class capabilities in semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, cloud infrastructure, AI applications and digital governance, they said.\nTogether, these countries could provide an open, resilient and genuinely diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power, they added.\nThe first batch of individual income tax refunds for this tax season is to be deposited on Friday, covering more than 3.65 million cases and totaling NT$61.24 billion (US$1.89 billion), with an average refund of NT$16,745 per case, the National Taxation Bureau of Kaohsiung said. After the annual individual income tax filing deadline, regional tax bureaus process refunds in three batches based on the filing method used by taxpayers, the bureau said, adding that the three batches are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30, and Jan. 20 next year. The first batch covers taxpayers who completed online filing before June 1, those who\nNEW AND IMPROVED: The N700ST is based on Japan’s N700S Shinkansen, and features a lighter design, better energy efficiency and upgraded accessibility facilities The first set of N700ST high-speed rail carriages, scheduled to arrive in Taiwan next month, would begin service on July 1 next year, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday. THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) made the remarks during a ceremony in Hitachi Ltd’s Kasado Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, where he and Hitachi Railway Systems Business Unit CEO Giuseppe Marino unveiled the locomotive of the first N700ST train. More than 200 guests attended the unveiling. “The first set of N700ST trains will soon be shipped to Taiwan from the prefecture’s Kasado Port. Hopefully, all the required tests will be completed successfully\nTaiwan has suspended visa processing for Moroccan nationals in response to Morocco halting visa applications for Taiwanese travelers worldwide, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Moroccan embassy in Japan on Thursday last week informed Taiwanese travel agencies that it would suspend its visa confirmation letter application service for Taiwanese seeking to travel to Morocco, the ministry said in a statement. Taiwanese are required to obtain a visa confirmation letter before traveling to Morocco, the Bureau of Consular Affairs Web site says. Applications are submitted through the Moroccan Embassy in Japan, which forwards them to authorities in Morocco for review. Once approved,\nRELIGIOUS GROUNDS: Followers of the I-Kuan Tao are especially advised not to travel to China, following a 50 percent surge in religious detentions in three months Nineteen people have been detained in China in the past three months because of their religious beliefs, representing a 50 percent surge from the previous three months, Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) said yesterday. The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee invited the foundation, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and other agencies to deliver a report on the government’s response to the growing number of missing Taiwanese citizens in China. From Jan. 1, 2024, to Wednesday last week, 402 people have gone missing, been detained for questioning or imprisoned in China, MAC data showed. Of the total cases, 154 are missing, 32 have","excerpt":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy. China is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.","extraction":{"state":"ok","confidence":0.9,"error":null,"explanation":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 7649 characters.","diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 7649 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":7649,"summary_length":421,"usable_text_length":7649,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":7649,"summary_length":421}}},"display_formats":["compact","card","full","digest_section","json"]},"daily_stack_record":{"title":"Taiwan key to US-led AI efforts: think tank - Taipei Times","url":"https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","summary":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy. China is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.","source":"Taipei Times","date":"2026-08-02T16:00:00+00:00","content":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy.\nChina is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.\nIn a co-authored article titled “How the US Can Counter China’s Emerging Tech Trap,” published on Thursday last week by The Diplomat, the two urge the US to work with partners such as Taiwan to build an open, resilient and diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power.\nPhoto: Reuters\nDiscussion over how Washington should respond to China’s rapidly advancing AI capabilities has intensified, partly after Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI unveiled its Kimi K3 model, which has narrowed the gap with models developed by US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.\nChina has entered a new phase of strategic competition, Cronin and Lai said. Following the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is seeking to export an entire AI ecosystem including chips, cloud infrastructure, foundation models, standards, applications, workforce training and governance.\nThey warn that the deeper countries become embedded in this infrastructure, the harder it would be to break away. If the Belt and Road Initiative created debt traps, Beijing’s latest initiative could produce an even more consequential “technology trap,” they said.\nThe article identifies China’s emerging AI diplomacy as centered on the newly established World AI Cooperation Organization, supported by AI application centers, open-source models, technical training, digital standards and infrastructure assistance. The authors describe this as the latest evolution of Beijing’s overarching strategy, combining diplomacy with the AI technology stack.\nAlthough Washington and Beijing remain engaged in managed competition in the Indo-Pacific region, Cronin and Lai said that the decisive contest is no longer limited to the military balance in the western Pacific. Instead, it concerns who would shape the technological foundations of future economies, governments and societies. Countries that establish leadership in AI and other critical technologies would gain lasting economic, military and geopolitical influence, they said.\nChina’s AI diplomacy serves several strategic objectives, including enhancing domestic technological self-sufficiency, expanding the global reach of Chinese companies, creating long-term dependence among developing countries and increasing Beijing’s geopolitical influence, they said.\nThe UK’s AI Security Institute estimates that China’s gap with the US in frontier AI models has narrowed from about nine months to four or five months.\nHowever, Cronin and Lai said that the competition is not simply about developing the world’s most powerful AI model. Rather, it is about whether dozens of emerging economies would build their digital infrastructure around an ecosystem ultimately shaped by the Chinese Communist Party. Countries that align their digital futures with China’s AI ecosystem risk not only commercial dependence but also political leverage, they added.\nTo compete globally, the authors say the US and its allies must offer not only advanced technologies, but also coordinated standards, financing, infrastructure and long-term strategic planning. They point to initiatives such as Pax Silica, which aims to bolster semiconductor and critical mineral supply chains, as well as the US innovation ecosystem led by companies including Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.\nWashington also needs a comprehensive AI diplomacy strategy to help countries develop sovereign digital capabilities without becoming dependent on any single authoritarian technology ecosystem, they said, adding that establishing a dedicated AI stack development fund to help partners finance secure and interoperable AI infrastructure could be the answer.\nThe article says the US advantage lies in offering openness rather than coercion, interoperability rather than exclusivity, and resilient partnerships rather than political leverage. Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan and other partners contribute world-class capabilities in semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, cloud infrastructure, AI applications and digital governance, they said.\nTogether, these countries could provide an open, resilient and genuinely diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power, they added.\nThe first batch of individual income tax refunds for this tax season is to be deposited on Friday, covering more than 3.65 million cases and totaling NT$61.24 billion (US$1.89 billion), with an average refund of NT$16,745 per case, the National Taxation Bureau of Kaohsiung said. After the annual individual income tax filing deadline, regional tax bureaus process refunds in three batches based on the filing method used by taxpayers, the bureau said, adding that the three batches are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30, and Jan. 20 next year. The first batch covers taxpayers who completed online filing before June 1, those who\nNEW AND IMPROVED: The N700ST is based on Japan’s N700S Shinkansen, and features a lighter design, better energy efficiency and upgraded accessibility facilities The first set of N700ST high-speed rail carriages, scheduled to arrive in Taiwan next month, would begin service on July 1 next year, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday. THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) made the remarks during a ceremony in Hitachi Ltd’s Kasado Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, where he and Hitachi Railway Systems Business Unit CEO Giuseppe Marino unveiled the locomotive of the first N700ST train. More than 200 guests attended the unveiling. “The first set of N700ST trains will soon be shipped to Taiwan from the prefecture’s Kasado Port. Hopefully, all the required tests will be completed successfully\nTaiwan has suspended visa processing for Moroccan nationals in response to Morocco halting visa applications for Taiwanese travelers worldwide, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Moroccan embassy in Japan on Thursday last week informed Taiwanese travel agencies that it would suspend its visa confirmation letter application service for Taiwanese seeking to travel to Morocco, the ministry said in a statement. Taiwanese are required to obtain a visa confirmation letter before traveling to Morocco, the Bureau of Consular Affairs Web site says. Applications are submitted through the Moroccan Embassy in Japan, which forwards them to authorities in Morocco for review. Once approved,\nRELIGIOUS GROUNDS: Followers of the I-Kuan Tao are especially advised not to travel to China, following a 50 percent surge in religious detentions in three months Nineteen people have been detained in China in the past three months because of their religious beliefs, representing a 50 percent surge from the previous three months, Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) said yesterday. The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee invited the foundation, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and other agencies to deliver a report on the government’s response to the growing number of missing Taiwanese citizens in China. From Jan. 1, 2024, to Wednesday last week, 402 people have gone missing, been detained for questioning or imprisoned in China, MAC data showed. 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China is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.","full_text":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy.\nChina is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.\nIn a co-authored article titled “How the US Can Counter China’s Emerging Tech Trap,” published on Thursday last week by The Diplomat, the two urge the US to work with partners such as Taiwan to build an open, resilient and diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power.\nPhoto: Reuters\nDiscussion over how Washington should respond to China’s rapidly advancing AI capabilities has intensified, partly after Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI unveiled its Kimi K3 model, which has narrowed the gap with models developed by US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.\nChina has entered a new phase of strategic competition, Cronin and Lai said. Following the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is seeking to export an entire AI ecosystem including chips, cloud infrastructure, foundation models, standards, applications, workforce training and governance.\nThey warn that the deeper countries become embedded in this infrastructure, the harder it would be to break away. If the Belt and Road Initiative created debt traps, Beijing’s latest initiative could produce an even more consequential “technology trap,” they said.\nThe article identifies China’s emerging AI diplomacy as centered on the newly established World AI Cooperation Organization, supported by AI application centers, open-source models, technical training, digital standards and infrastructure assistance. The authors describe this as the latest evolution of Beijing’s overarching strategy, combining diplomacy with the AI technology stack.\nAlthough Washington and Beijing remain engaged in managed competition in the Indo-Pacific region, Cronin and Lai said that the decisive contest is no longer limited to the military balance in the western Pacific. Instead, it concerns who would shape the technological foundations of future economies, governments and societies. Countries that establish leadership in AI and other critical technologies would gain lasting economic, military and geopolitical influence, they said.\nChina’s AI diplomacy serves several strategic objectives, including enhancing domestic technological self-sufficiency, expanding the global reach of Chinese companies, creating long-term dependence among developing countries and increasing Beijing’s geopolitical influence, they said.\nThe UK’s AI Security Institute estimates that China’s gap with the US in frontier AI models has narrowed from about nine months to four or five months.\nHowever, Cronin and Lai said that the competition is not simply about developing the world’s most powerful AI model. Rather, it is about whether dozens of emerging economies would build their digital infrastructure around an ecosystem ultimately shaped by the Chinese Communist Party. Countries that align their digital futures with China’s AI ecosystem risk not only commercial dependence but also political leverage, they added.\nTo compete globally, the authors say the US and its allies must offer not only advanced technologies, but also coordinated standards, financing, infrastructure and long-term strategic planning. They point to initiatives such as Pax Silica, which aims to bolster semiconductor and critical mineral supply chains, as well as the US innovation ecosystem led by companies including Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.\nWashington also needs a comprehensive AI diplomacy strategy to help countries develop sovereign digital capabilities without becoming dependent on any single authoritarian technology ecosystem, they said, adding that establishing a dedicated AI stack development fund to help partners finance secure and interoperable AI infrastructure could be the answer.\nThe article says the US advantage lies in offering openness rather than coercion, interoperability rather than exclusivity, and resilient partnerships rather than political leverage. Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan and other partners contribute world-class capabilities in semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, cloud infrastructure, AI applications and digital governance, they said.\nTogether, these countries could provide an open, resilient and genuinely diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power, they added.\nThe first batch of individual income tax refunds for this tax season is to be deposited on Friday, covering more than 3.65 million cases and totaling NT$61.24 billion (US$1.89 billion), with an average refund of NT$16,745 per case, the National Taxation Bureau of Kaohsiung said. After the annual individual income tax filing deadline, regional tax bureaus process refunds in three batches based on the filing method used by taxpayers, the bureau said, adding that the three batches are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30, and Jan. 20 next year. The first batch covers taxpayers who completed online filing before June 1, those who\nNEW AND IMPROVED: The N700ST is based on Japan’s N700S Shinkansen, and features a lighter design, better energy efficiency and upgraded accessibility facilities The first set of N700ST high-speed rail carriages, scheduled to arrive in Taiwan next month, would begin service on July 1 next year, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday. THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) made the remarks during a ceremony in Hitachi Ltd’s Kasado Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, where he and Hitachi Railway Systems Business Unit CEO Giuseppe Marino unveiled the locomotive of the first N700ST train. More than 200 guests attended the unveiling. “The first set of N700ST trains will soon be shipped to Taiwan from the prefecture’s Kasado Port. Hopefully, all the required tests will be completed successfully\nTaiwan has suspended visa processing for Moroccan nationals in response to Morocco halting visa applications for Taiwanese travelers worldwide, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Moroccan embassy in Japan on Thursday last week informed Taiwanese travel agencies that it would suspend its visa confirmation letter application service for Taiwanese seeking to travel to Morocco, the ministry said in a statement. Taiwanese are required to obtain a visa confirmation letter before traveling to Morocco, the Bureau of Consular Affairs Web site says. Applications are submitted through the Moroccan Embassy in Japan, which forwards them to authorities in Morocco for review. Once approved,\nRELIGIOUS GROUNDS: Followers of the I-Kuan Tao are especially advised not to travel to China, following a 50 percent surge in religious detentions in three months Nineteen people have been detained in China in the past three months because of their religious beliefs, representing a 50 percent surge from the previous three months, Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) said yesterday. The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee invited the foundation, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and other agencies to deliver a report on the government’s response to the growing number of missing Taiwanese citizens in China. From Jan. 1, 2024, to Wednesday last week, 402 people have gone missing, been detained for questioning or imprisoned in China, MAC data showed. Of the total cases, 154 are missing, 32 have","reading_time_min":6,"extraction":{"state":"ok","confidence":0.9,"error":null,"explanation":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 7649 characters.","diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 7649 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":7649,"summary_length":421,"usable_text_length":7649,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":7649,"summary_length":421}}},"quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 7649 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":7649,"summary_length":421,"usable_text_length":7649,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":7649,"summary_length":421}},"actions":{"read":"/item/51741","export_markdown":"/api/items/51741/export?format=markdown","export_json":"/api/items/51741/export?format=json","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842"}},"digest":{"id":51741,"title":"Taiwan key to US-led AI efforts: think tank - Taipei Times","url":"https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","source":"Taipei Times","topic":"ai","published_at":"2026-08-02T16:00:00+00:00","excerpt":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy. China is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching…","quality_bucket":"high","quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 7649 characters.","reading_time_min":6,"cluster_id":null},"card":{"display_title":"Taiwan key to US-led AI efforts: think tank - Taipei Times","subtitle":"Taipei Times · 2026-08-02","summary":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy. China is seeking to…","badges":["quality:high"],"links":{"read":"/item/51741","original":"https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842"},"quality_warning":null},"export":{"title":"Taiwan key to US-led AI efforts: think tank - Taipei Times","url":"https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/08/03/2003861842","summary":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy. China is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.","source":"Taipei Times","date":"2026-08-02T16:00:00+00:00","content":"A commentary from a US think tank says Taiwan should play a key role in the US-led effort to build an open and resilient artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem as China expands its AI diplomacy.\nChina is seeking to advance AI diplomacy that could create a far-reaching “technology trap,” Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, and research associate Lai Pin-shan (賴品杉) said.\nIn a co-authored article titled “How the US Can Counter China’s Emerging Tech Trap,” published on Thursday last week by The Diplomat, the two urge the US to work with partners such as Taiwan to build an open, resilient and diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power.\nPhoto: Reuters\nDiscussion over how Washington should respond to China’s rapidly advancing AI capabilities has intensified, partly after Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI unveiled its Kimi K3 model, which has narrowed the gap with models developed by US companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.\nChina has entered a new phase of strategic competition, Cronin and Lai said. Following the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is seeking to export an entire AI ecosystem including chips, cloud infrastructure, foundation models, standards, applications, workforce training and governance.\nThey warn that the deeper countries become embedded in this infrastructure, the harder it would be to break away. If the Belt and Road Initiative created debt traps, Beijing’s latest initiative could produce an even more consequential “technology trap,” they said.\nThe article identifies China’s emerging AI diplomacy as centered on the newly established World AI Cooperation Organization, supported by AI application centers, open-source models, technical training, digital standards and infrastructure assistance. The authors describe this as the latest evolution of Beijing’s overarching strategy, combining diplomacy with the AI technology stack.\nAlthough Washington and Beijing remain engaged in managed competition in the Indo-Pacific region, Cronin and Lai said that the decisive contest is no longer limited to the military balance in the western Pacific. Instead, it concerns who would shape the technological foundations of future economies, governments and societies. Countries that establish leadership in AI and other critical technologies would gain lasting economic, military and geopolitical influence, they said.\nChina’s AI diplomacy serves several strategic objectives, including enhancing domestic technological self-sufficiency, expanding the global reach of Chinese companies, creating long-term dependence among developing countries and increasing Beijing’s geopolitical influence, they said.\nThe UK’s AI Security Institute estimates that China’s gap with the US in frontier AI models has narrowed from about nine months to four or five months.\nHowever, Cronin and Lai said that the competition is not simply about developing the world’s most powerful AI model. Rather, it is about whether dozens of emerging economies would build their digital infrastructure around an ecosystem ultimately shaped by the Chinese Communist Party. Countries that align their digital futures with China’s AI ecosystem risk not only commercial dependence but also political leverage, they added.\nTo compete globally, the authors say the US and its allies must offer not only advanced technologies, but also coordinated standards, financing, infrastructure and long-term strategic planning. They point to initiatives such as Pax Silica, which aims to bolster semiconductor and critical mineral supply chains, as well as the US innovation ecosystem led by companies including Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.\nWashington also needs a comprehensive AI diplomacy strategy to help countries develop sovereign digital capabilities without becoming dependent on any single authoritarian technology ecosystem, they said, adding that establishing a dedicated AI stack development fund to help partners finance secure and interoperable AI infrastructure could be the answer.\nThe article says the US advantage lies in offering openness rather than coercion, interoperability rather than exclusivity, and resilient partnerships rather than political leverage. Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan and other partners contribute world-class capabilities in semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, cloud infrastructure, AI applications and digital governance, they said.\nTogether, these countries could provide an open, resilient and genuinely diverse AI ecosystem rather than one dominated by a single authoritarian power, they added.\nThe first batch of individual income tax refunds for this tax season is to be deposited on Friday, covering more than 3.65 million cases and totaling NT$61.24 billion (US$1.89 billion), with an average refund of NT$16,745 per case, the National Taxation Bureau of Kaohsiung said. After the annual individual income tax filing deadline, regional tax bureaus process refunds in three batches based on the filing method used by taxpayers, the bureau said, adding that the three batches are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30, and Jan. 20 next year. The first batch covers taxpayers who completed online filing before June 1, those who\nNEW AND IMPROVED: The N700ST is based on Japan’s N700S Shinkansen, and features a lighter design, better energy efficiency and upgraded accessibility facilities The first set of N700ST high-speed rail carriages, scheduled to arrive in Taiwan next month, would begin service on July 1 next year, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday. THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) made the remarks during a ceremony in Hitachi Ltd’s Kasado Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, where he and Hitachi Railway Systems Business Unit CEO Giuseppe Marino unveiled the locomotive of the first N700ST train. More than 200 guests attended the unveiling. “The first set of N700ST trains will soon be shipped to Taiwan from the prefecture’s Kasado Port. Hopefully, all the required tests will be completed successfully\nTaiwan has suspended visa processing for Moroccan nationals in response to Morocco halting visa applications for Taiwanese travelers worldwide, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Moroccan embassy in Japan on Thursday last week informed Taiwanese travel agencies that it would suspend its visa confirmation letter application service for Taiwanese seeking to travel to Morocco, the ministry said in a statement. Taiwanese are required to obtain a visa confirmation letter before traveling to Morocco, the Bureau of Consular Affairs Web site says. Applications are submitted through the Moroccan Embassy in Japan, which forwards them to authorities in Morocco for review. Once approved,\nRELIGIOUS GROUNDS: Followers of the I-Kuan Tao are especially advised not to travel to China, following a 50 percent surge in religious detentions in three months Nineteen people have been detained in China in the past three months because of their religious beliefs, representing a 50 percent surge from the previous three months, Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) said yesterday. The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee invited the foundation, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and other agencies to deliver a report on the government’s response to the growing number of missing Taiwanese citizens in China. From Jan. 1, 2024, to Wednesday last week, 402 people have gone missing, been detained for questioning or imprisoned in China, MAC data showed. 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