Under threat from China, Taiwan’s companies pivot to defense manufacturing : NPR

Under threat from China, Taiwan’s companies pivot to defense manufacturing : NPR

Po Sheng Lai, the founder of Shern Yeong Precise Optical, a company in the northern Taiwanese city of Yilan that makes high-end glass is pivoting to making defense products.

Emily Feng/NPR


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Emily Feng/NPR


Po Sheng Lai, the founder of Shern Yeong Precise Optical, a company in the northern Taiwanese city of Yilan that makes high-end glass is pivoting to making defense products.

Emily Feng/NPR

TAINAN, Taiwan — The technology behind the plastic injection mold machines that hum in a factory in this town in southern Taiwan were once used to make Buddhist temple decorations. A generation later, the company, Hwa Meei Optical, now makes recreational eyewear, such as ski goggles and sunglasses.

But it has ambitions to outfit soldiers.

“Every generation at Hwa Meei improves. Now we will have to see what the third generation will do,” says Lin Shunfu, a company vice president.

He is now shifting the company into the defense sector to manufacture and sell shatterproof, bullet-resistant eyewear for the military.

As China’s military might grows, the Asia Pacific region is in an arms race to both deter and prepare for war. Taiwan is no exception. It’s a self-governing island that China claims as its own territory, to be conquered by force if necessary. Taiwan has extended its mandatory military conscription period for men from four months to a year and is intensifying its own military drills. In July, the White House announced it would send Taiwan $345 million worth of weapons, taken directly from the U.S.’ own stockpile for the first time, as well as other defense services, such as training.

Now Taiwanese private companies are also pivoting into the defense sector and making weapons, and U.S. defense contractors are exploring ways to manufacture and design noncore components of their weapons systems in Taiwan.

To do so, they will need to work within the Taiwanese military’s rigid approach to reform and a historical preference to rely on government research institutes for equipment upgrades.

However, under pressure to match China’s accelerating military capacity, Taiwan’s military is looking for creative ways to boost its defense abilities in a short period of time, and it has been loosening once-strict procurement rules to allow private companies to develop dual-use technologies for its military — giving companies like Hwa Meei a chance.

“Every year Taiwan spends billions of dollars to buy American defense equipment. It is almost [like] we are paying the U.S. protection money. But if U.S. companies could support local businesses, some of the benefit would return to Taiwan and ensure we help each other,” Lin says.

3,000 drones by next year

Twice in the past year, China’s military has conducted military exercises simulating a full blockade of Taiwan. In a real conflict, such a blockade would make it impossible for the U.S., Japan or nearby countries to ship in any weapons or reinforcements not already stockpiled on the island.

That has led Taiwan’s manufacturers to ask: Why not build up defense supply chains

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Military services technological innovation cooperation with crucial allies outweighs the threat of leaks to enemies

Military services technological innovation cooperation with crucial allies outweighs the threat of leaks to enemies

At very last week’s so-termed “AUKUS Protection Ministerial” conference, Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin and his British and Australian counterparts, Ben Wallace and Richard Marles, said that they expected to announce in early 2023 what would be “the exceptional pathway” for Australia to obtain at the very least 8 conventionally-armed, nuclear-driven submarines. Translated into basic English, the phrase connotes the impending final decision as to no matter if, in accordance with the conditions of the September 2021 AUKUS agreement, the submarines will be based on a British or American style. In any function, both of those nations around the world will share their nuclear propulsion know-how with Australia.

AUKUS is a lot more than a program to make a new Australian submarine fleet to change the aging Collins class. It also calls for cooperation among the 3 nations around the world on a wide array of technologies, such as, but not minimal to, innovative cyber, synthetic intelligence and autonomy, quantum systems, undersea abilities, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic engineering, digital warfare. It is in this context that the problem of expanding AUKUS to other states has arisen.

In particular, the AUKUS ministerial has spurred substantial discussion about expanding AUKUS to incorporate Japan, generating a so-referred to as “JAUKUS.” Marles, the Australian protection minister, made it obvious wherever Canberra stands on the make any difference: “AUKUS is a functionality and technologies partnership, one particular which we hope will variety aspect of a broader network Australia seeks to develop, in which Japan is central.” The dilemma, thus, is not no matter whether Japan would be a part of the club of a few but when in truth, some observers argue that the quicker, the superior.

Japan, a longstanding American treaty ally, has a short while ago expanded its armed service cooperation with the other two AUKUS states and has ongoing to raise its protection spending. Tokyo and Canberra signed a reciprocal entry settlement in January, which phone calls for joint military services workouts and less complicated entry for every single country’s forces onto the territory of the other, and commonly supplies for larger and what has been termed “seamless” cooperation involving the two militaries. In October, the two international locations also signed an up to date and strengthened variation of their wide-ranging 2007 Joint Declaration on Protection Cooperation.

Japan similarly has deepened its armed service ties with the United Kingdom, whose forces are ever more lively in East Asia, including the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth’s five-thirty day period deployment to the South China Sea, which was accomplished previous month. In 2017, London and Tokyo issued a Joint Declaration on Protection Cooperation that named for joint workouts, information and facts exchanges, and mutual logistics support. In July 2022, the two international locations introduced they would be a part of Italy to acquire a sixth-era fighter plane. This thirty day period, the United kingdom and Japan will indicator a reciprocal entry arrangement identical to the Japanese-Australian settlement — and it is noteworthy that China’s

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New ContractWorks Review Reveals Lawful Technologies Adoption Will come with Superior Threat of Unsuccessful Implementation

New ContractWorks Review Reveals Lawful Technologies Adoption Will come with Superior Threat of Unsuccessful Implementation

Investigate reveals 77% of in-household counsel encounter unsuccessful engineering tasks, highlights keys for the effective implementation of present day lawful engineering

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., May well 04, 2022 (Globe NEWSWIRE) — ContractWorks, a foremost agreement management resolution for in-house lawful groups from SecureDocs, an Onit subsidiary, today unveiled the effects of a 3rd-party research spotlighting the obstacles of adopting legal engineering for company authorized functions groups. The study explores the causes for failed technological know-how implementations and identifies options to immediately and proficiently modernize legal operations.

ContractWorks commissioned Censuswide, a global insight-driven exploration corporation based mostly in the United Kingdom, to carry out a review of 350 in-property legal specialists across a vary of industries in the United States and United Kingdom. All respondents onboarded new technologies options since the commence of the COVID-19 pandemic, with far more than 50 % (57%) stating their team’s adoption of know-how was accelerated by at minimum a few a long time. However, far more than a few quarters of in-residence counsel (77%) knowledge failed know-how implementations and point out the most typical elements contributing to the failure as lengthy processes (38%), overcomplicated answers (36%) and technology unfit for their precise requirements (33%).

Other important findings consist of:

  • Nine out of 10 in-dwelling lawyers wrestle with technology methods applied by their businesses.

  • 29% doubt their employer understands what is ideal for the business soon after a failed technological innovation adoption.

  • 27% say a unsuccessful implementation would make them contemplate leaving their task, although one in four say it makes them resent their job.

On the other hand, the examine concludes that legal departments should really not be deterred by the risk of unsuccessful adoption. Automating time-consuming and handbook processes with user-welcoming, fast-to-apply and objective-built answers boosts operational effectiveness in just lawful companies, which in change moves their companies forward. When successfully implemented, legal engineering would make attorneys and lawful functions teams a lot more successful, much less probable to make errors and much more pleased with their do the job.

“To be certain the profitable adoption of legal know-how, firms must comply with 3 easy rules,” explained Mark Rhodes, Controlling Director of SecureDocs United kingdom. “First, concentration on the greatest precedence dilemma to resolve next, determine what a effective implementation appears to be like just before building an expenditure and third, get your end users on the journey with you due to the fact they are the kinds adopting and working with the technological know-how.”

To understand a lot more about ContractWorks, take a look at www.contractworks.com.

About ContractWorks
ContractWorks from SecureDocs is employed by hundreds of in-home lawful teams in organizations across the globe, enabling them to just take manage of their contracts by producing it much easier to execute, store, and monitor corporate agreements. Functions incorporate superior lookup with OCR, good doc tagging with AI, computerized alerts for vital dates, thorough reporting, and straightforward electronic signature. SecureDocs has workplaces in Santa Barbara, California and London, Uk and is a

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