On Sept. 17 and 18, Taiwan was rocked by a series of earthquakes centered on the picturesque southeastern county of Taitung. The 6.4 and 6.8 magnitude temblors, respectively, caused train derailments, structural collapses and trapped hundreds on mountain roads. One life was lost and around 150 were injured.

Following the quakes and aftershocks — swiftly and widely reported by the people via social media platforms — messages of care and care and concern flooded in from the country’s allies, partners and friends worldwide.

This heartwarming and deeply appreciated show of support comforted the people in their hour of emotional need and reminded them that Taiwan is not alone. Equally important, it highlighted the critical importance of strengthening digital resilience — a core objective of the Ministry of Digital Affairs and personal mission of President Tsai Ing-wen.

But what is resilience? Resilience is the ability to quickly recover when affected by adversity at any time, to adapt to changes promptly through perfecting mechanisms and to learn from the experience of being attacked to strengthen one’s own physical fitness.

Since the launch of the moda Aug. 27, the ministry has pulled out all stops in ensuring continuity of the country’s communications in the event of natural disasters or, as repeatedly threatened, a military attack. The latter is particularly pertinent given Beijing’s response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s historic visit to experience firsthand Taiwan’s freedom and democracy earlier the same month. 

The fact Pelosi and her delegation of lawmakers freely chose to visit Taiwan, and Taiwan freely chose to welcome them, was too much for the Chinese Communist Party to bear. Air and sea exercises, ballistic missile launches and live-fire drills by the People’s Liberation Army in the vicinity of Taiwan soon followed.

In threatening peace and stability throughout the Indo-Pacific, Beijing sent a strong reminder that Taiwan — as per the Scout Movement motto — must “Be prepared.” This is the same message hammered home by President Tsai, Taiwan’s chief scout, at every opportunity.

As a guardian of Taiwan’s social stability, the moda has cast its policymaking net far and wide in strengthening the country’s digital resilience. Numerous examples and models were studied in detail, including Ukraine’s inspirational fightback against Russia’s brutal war of aggression.

Measures adopted to date include building non-geostationary orbit satellite internet systems, supporting homegrown firms seeking international partnerships with satellite service providers, rolling out a 700-location strong pilot program creating high-quality video communication capability and establishing missile-proof server rooms.

The overarching goal is to maintain democratic resilience and keep Taiwan’s essential systems operating by instantly employing alternative forms of communication, as shown to great effect by the government of Ukraine and the East European country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily addresses to the nation and wider world.

In the simplest terms, the government must be able to talk with the people and its friends around the globe in real time. This is the best and only way of disarming disinformation and ensuring rumors are quickly quashed.

This tried and tested approach dovetails with related thinking shared by Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former president of Estonia, in July 2022 during episode nine of the Innovative Minds video podcast hosted by top-flight streaming service TaiwanPlus.   

Illves said Estonia stores important government information abroad for backup and real time synchronization — a practice originating from the Fukushima incident in 2011. After learning that Japan had lost public sector data due to the disaster, the Estonian government started thinking about how to respond to such a situation. In addition to transporting important materials physically to embassies abroad, it also set up servers in its diplomatic facilities.

As the Ukrainian and Estonian examples demonstrate, digital resilience is everything when it comes to heightening confidence and trust in a government and among all segments of society. The good news is the country's already strong foundation puts it in good stead for more moda-spurred progress utilizing human-centered technology in related areas.