Taiwan’s Presidential website suffered a DDoS attack on Tuesday, hours before US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed on the island in a visit mainland China adamantly opposes.
The DDoS attack — which involves bombarding a site with a flood of internet traffic— occurred at 5:15pm local time and briefly caused the website for President Tsai Ing-wen to go down for about 20 minutes.
In a Facebook post, Presidential spokesman Chang Tun-Han said the attack generated “200 times” the usual traffic to the website. In addition, the attack was sourced to internet traffic coming from outside the island’s networks.
Although it remains unclear who launched the attack, suspicion is already falling on the Chinese government, which has warned that Taiwan will face “serious consequences” for permitting Pelosi to visit the island. The Chinese government has long sought to reclaim Taiwan as part of mainland China. However, Pelosi’s visit is sparking concerns in Beijing that the US is subtly maneuvering to support Taiwan’s independence as its own nation, separate from China.
“A visit to Taiwan by her would constitute a gross interference in China’s internal affairs, seriously undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” China’s foreign minister said on Monday, later adding: “We will make resolute response and take strong countermeasures to uphold China’s sovereignty.”
The DDoS attack may signal that China has more in store to harass Taiwan. As Pelosi landed on the island, Chinese state media reported that the country’s Su-35 fighter jets were entering the Taiwan strait. On Monday, Chinese company Sina also mysteriously closed its news website and social media service Sina Weibo for Taiwan.
In response to the DDoS attack, Taiwan’s Presidential spokesman Chang said Taiwan will continue to bolster the island’s IT defenses and critical infrastructure to confront the external information warfare. Meanwhile, the White House has officially said it does not support Taiwan independence, but that Speaker Pelosi has the right to visit the island.
In a statement, Pelosi defended the visit as honoring "America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant Democracy.
"Our visit is part of our broader trip to the Indo-Pacific — including Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan — focused on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance," she added. "Our discussions with Taiwan leadership will focus on reaffirming our support for our partner and on promoting our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy."
Pelosi also noted that she is not the only US politician to visit Taiwan. "Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan – and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo.”
The visit received support today from 26 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said it's consistent with the US' One China policy.