Canada Defense and Security Summit emphasizes the need to counter China and Russia

Canada's annual "Ottawa Security and Defense Conference" debuted. In response to the aggressive ambitions of China and Russia, Canada announced an expansion of its defense budget. Many themed forums focused on how to defend against the snarky belligerence of China and Russia, and Taiwanese experts were also invited to share how to combat disinformation from Beijing.

The 92nd "Ottawa Conference on Security & Defense" opened on March 7. It is Canada's largest and oldest defense conference, covering various fields such as national defense, diplomacy, science and technology, and finance. Hundreds of international experts and others participated.

In his opening speech, Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair emphasized that standing firmly with NATO allies and resisting challenges from China and Russia is the most important goal.

Last month, Chinese Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu threatened Canada not to send more warships to patrol the Taiwan Strait. In his speech, Blair directly slapped China in the face, saying that he would not only send more warships, but also more. "Last year, we dispatched three warships to cruise the Indo-Pacific and cross the Taiwan Strait for the first time in decades. We will continue to do this in the future and send more warships to perform relevant tasks."

Blair emphasized the importance of the Indo-Pacific strategy, so Canada and ASEAN became strategic partners last September, and Canada and the Philippines signed a defense cooperation memorandum in November.

Blair also reiterated that Canada firmly supports Ukraine no matter how long the war between Russia and Ukraine lasts.

He also said that it is important to consolidate its own strength, so Canada has more than doubled its military budget and launched an "AI Strategy" to respond to the challenges of the new technological era.

Canadian Chief of Defense Staff General Wayne Eyre also mentioned the threat from China and emphasized the importance of expanding national defense armaments. "Our adversaries such as China are becoming more powerful militarily, but our ability to gather information to fight them is declining, which is why we need to expand our resources and have better capabilities."

Canada is conducting a foreign interference hearing investigation. One of the keynote lectures at this summit is on "Foreign Interference and Threats to Democratic Process." You Zhihao, co-host of the Taiwan Information Environment Research Center, is the speaker. In one, he shared many classic cases of China spreading disinformation, ranging from the supply of eggs on people's livelihood issues to the suspicion of beauty in scientific and technological diplomacy.

He said that everyone knows that Taiwanese food is world-renowned, but even on the matter of "eating", Beijing has not forgotten the "united front", so the Chinese media frequently express opinions "uninvited". You Zhihao said: "They insist that Taiwan and China originate from the same culture and have the same taste, and refuse to admit that Taiwan has a unique food culture. This shows Beijing's information war to eliminate Taiwan's status. It also adopts the same approach to Hong Kong. practice."

He also shared how Taiwanese citizen groups took the initiative to fight against China's disinformation. Participants at the scene greatly admired Taiwan's awareness and ability to use small measures to achieve big results and mobilize the whole people.