justice system as he announced indictments against 13 of its nationals. in one case, the department ofjustice nationals. in one case, the department of justice accused two chinese intelligence agents of attempted bribery and espionage in america. now on bbc news it s hardtalk with zeinab badawi. welcome to this special edition of hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi, from the taiwanese capital, taipei. people here in taiwan, which is self governed, live under a constant threat from china, which lies about 160 kilometres across the waters. beijing claims taiwan as part of its territory, and in the past few months has carried out hundreds of military sorties neartaiwan, leading to speculation that it is preparing for an invasion. taiwan has also been subjected to cyber attacks from china. my guest is the taiwanese digital minister, audrey tang. can taiwan really forge its own path? minister audrey tang in taipei, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, really happy to be here. president xi
hm mm. but do you think that s reassuring for the taiwanese or arguably, it could put you right in the middle of the growing tensions between china and the united states. you could end up becoming a pawn in this superpower rivalry. yep, a couple of things. i think first of all, clarity doesn t mean escalation. so it s not like we re escalating the tension here. that s the first thing. and the second thing is that, as i mentioned, there s a lot of willingness from not just the us but also european counterparts and many other democratic allies all the 60 signatories of the declaration for the future of the internet, have committed to keep us a free and open. sorry, just sticking with the tensions, you re not escalating the tensions but the tensions between china and the united states and are escalating. joe biden has got the export controls now on the chinese technology and so on and my point is how is taiwan viewing this?