Andy Hsin, a manager at Coretronic, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, beams as he picks up a small black surveillance drone. “These are 100% zero-red,” he says. “Nothing made in China.”
Mr Hsin’s company is already selling these “non-red” drones to American firefighters and other first responders.
Next it is eyeing America’s border control. Taiwan’s government hopes that more companies will follow in its footsteps. It is trying to cultivate a domestic drone industry to both supply its own armed forces and capitalise on other countries’ distrust of China.
It wants to become what Lai Ching-te, its president, calls the “Asian hub of UAV supply chains for global democracies”.
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