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Welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm Osvaloshin and this is The Story.

Earlier this month, I was in Munich, Germany, at the DLD Conference.

And I had the opportunity to sit down with someone I've wanted to meet for a long time.

Audrey Tong, who served as Minister for Digital Affairs of Taiwan

until 2024. Audrey's path to government had rather unusual origins, a hacker, an anarchist,

and the world's first non-binary government minister. When I entered the cabinet, they gave me this HR form.

And I wrote not applicable or wu in both the gender field and the party affiliation.

So I've never attended any political party.

And I think these two do have something in common, which is I take a stance that

I share part of your experience, I share part of their experience. But at the end of the day,

it is the shared experience that counts. It is not the political label or the gender label

that counts. And I think this also

allowed me to essentially take all the sides and bring communities back together when they were

being torn apart over the political labeling, the radicalization, and also about gender politics.

We recorded this conversation against the backdrop of China's largest ever military drills around Taiwan,

and a newly struck trade deal with the US that involves a commitment from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company

to transfer its advanced chip-making expertise to the US.

Some worry, this may ultimately reduce the American interest in guaranteeing Taiwan's security.

We talk about these issues, but Audrey's bigger point is this.

A Taiwan that is open to debate and not polarised by social media will be far more resilient

...