US, Taiwan creating new data exchange system closed to Russia, China

Seven countries, including the United States and Taiwan, will create a new data exchange channel that will prevent the flow of sensitive personal information to the two hostile nations, China and Russia, the Nikkei has reported. 

The other countries in the proposed framework include Canada, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Singapore. 

The new system of information exchange will be independent of the current framework and structure of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which includes Russia and China, said the newspaper. Also, in the future, non-members of APEC, including the UK and Brazil may be involved.

A structure for transferring large data arrays, including economic data, has also been planned to be created within the framework of the new system. The system itself is expected to be comparable in scale to the relevant mechanisms of the European Union.

The system will be used to expand e-commerce networks and implement regional structures for controlling unmanned traffic, the publication said.

The move could increase friction between China and the US as it marks a turnaround in Washington’s avowed one-China policy.

“I would like to emphasise: we do not support Taiwan’s independence and remain committed to a unified China policy,” State Department spokesman Ned Price had said previously.

Earlier, it was reported that the White House had developed guidelines on intelligence sharing with Ukraine. It included a ban on the transfer of data on representatives of the Russian military command and targets outside of Ukraine.

According to the document, the US cannot provide detailed information that would help "take the life" of the Russian military leadership, including the head of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, although the ban does not apply to the data on Russian officers located in Ukraine.

According to a senior Pentagon official, the US authorities tacitly decided not to transfer information about the location of top officers and generals to Kiev, anyway. 

The ban on the transfer of information about the goals of the Russian armed forces outside the country to Ukraine is related to the fact that the US did not want to become “a participant in the attacks that Ukraine could carry out on the territory of Russia.