Even this — radical transparency — was very important early on. When I joined the Cabinet it was right after the Sunflower Movement , in which President Ma’s approval rate was at 9 percent, mostly because people had lost trust in vertical institutions. For the past 12 years — starting around the Sunflower period — Taiwan has been the top target (according to V‑Dem ) for polarization attacks and foreign information interference. So, to design defense and resilience, you have to shift from a vertical mode of trust (people trust an institution because it holds the “high ground” in elite conversations) to a horizontal mode (people trust those who sound like them and learn like them — everyday people).