TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – National Security Council Advisor Lee Yuh-jye (李育杰) and National Science and Technology Council official Lai You-hao (賴又豪) spoke at The Sydney Dialogue about democracy and technology, reports said Saturday.

The Dec. 4-5 event was organized by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The annual meeting gathers government members, academics, business leaders, and experts from the Baltic to the Indo-Pacific to discuss security and technology issues.

Lee spoke at the event about China’s use of the audiovisual sector to spread supportive measures for its policies in Taiwan, and of shopping sites to collect data about users, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. China also treated Taiwan as an experimental laboratory for intelligence gathering and sabotage, he said.

While Lee also attended last year’s edition of The Sydney Dialogue, for the National Science and Technology Council, this was the first year it attended. Its representative, Lai, served as deputy director of the Democratic Governance Program at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology.

He emphasized the need for transparency and an open environment in the development of AI, as it was the only means for the public to trust the new technology.