Taiwan denies link to lethal pager explosions in Lebanon

- The components are low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries, I can say with certainty they were not made in Taiwan, said Taiwanese Minister of Economy Kuo Jyh-huei on Friday. At the beginning of the week, the media reported that the exploding model of pagers in Lebanon was the AR-924 device from the Taiwanese brand Gold Apollo.

- The components are low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries, I can say with certainty they were not made in Taiwan, said the economy minister when asked whether the parts in the pagers that exploded are of Taiwanese production. He added that the case is being investigated by judicial authorities.

- The components are (mainly) low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries, he pointed out.

Kuo explained that Gold Apollo has exported 260,000 sets of pagers to European countries and America over the past two years, with no incidents of explosions reported.

- These things would not explode, he added.

It is unclear where the pagers were manufactured, despite the name of the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo Co. appearing on some of the exploded devices. The company told journalists they had nothing to do with these models and that a Hungarian company, BAC Consulting KFT, is responsible for their production. On the other hand, the authorities in Budapest stated that it has no factories in the country, and the company itself remains elusive.

While Taiwanese authorities are investigating any potential links between extensive global supply chains and the devices used in the Lebanon attacks, Gold Apollo’s president and founder, Hsu Ching-kuang, was questioned by prosecutors and then released. The offices of Gold Apollo and BAC Consulting KFT were also searched, reported the Taiwanese CNA agency on Friday.

Although booby-trapped devices have been used in espionage for years, the scale and violence of the attacks in Lebanon have concerned authorities worldwide. They worry that globalised supply chains, which help produce inexpensive goods and fuel global growth, could become weapons in the hands of foreign adversaries, reports Bloomberg.

- When you depend on other nations for key inputs or technology you give them a back door into everything you do, believes Melanie Hart, a former State Department official, adding that the explosions in Lebanon show what such dependence can lead to.

- If Israel can do this, China can do it, too, says Seth Moulton, a member of the House of Representatives. - Long, opaque supply chains leave gaps that can too easily be exploited, and we need a strategy for closing them, in close collaboration with our allies, he adds.

A high-ranking US intelligence official, who wishes to remain anonymous, believes the attacks are the latest and most dramatic in a series of global supply chain attacks. The official said that preparation for them often takes years and usually has a narrow focus on limiting collateral damage.

Hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the Iranian-backed Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Hamas, exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday in an unprecedented attack that killed 37 people and injured nearly 3,000. Israeli intelligence is suspected of installing the explosive devices.

As Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute reported, thousands of phones, laptops, and other electronic equipment likely exploded. He posted a video on X showing explosions during the funeral of Hezbollah members who died in a similar manner.