The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) holds an "open" attitude toward local chipmakers setting up 8-inch wafer fabs in China and using 0.18-micron manufacturing technology there, MAC Chairman Joseph Wu (
Wu said an actual announcement on the opening would have to wait until the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) worked out the details of the policy.
Wu was responding to questions in a legislative committee meeting during which Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) asked if the MAC had gotten in the way of the applications by two local chipmakers -- Powerchip Semiconductor and ProMOS Technologies -- to set up 8-inch wafer fabs in China, as the applications had been made two years ago.
Wu said the MAC had adopted an "open" attitude concerning the matter in accordance with a consensus reached in a national economic development conference earlier this year.
Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (
Chen said his ministry is still reviewing the applications for 8-inch wafer fabs in China and that it hopes a conclusion can be reached by the end of this year.
During the session yesterday, Wu also pleaded with pan-blue lawmakers to approve the council's budget for next year for the Chinese Development Fund to promote cross-strait academic exchange.
Wu pitched a budget for next year of NT$40.023 million (US$1.2 million) for the funds in a legislative committee meeting yesterday, saying they were necessary for winning over the hearts and minds of China's elite.
"The Chinese Development Fund is applied toward bringing elite scholars from China to Taiwan for work or study," Wu said, adding that "these people are the future leaders of China."
"This isn't the same as tourism; these academics stay long-term, becoming exposed to our free press and democracy," Wu said.
According to a council budget report, the Chinese Development Fund serves as a source of grants awarded to Chinese scholars conducting research in Taiwan; it also provides assistance to private organizations that promote cross-strait exchanges and can be used to hold cross-strait academic conferences.
People First Party Legislator Feng Ting-kuo (
"No," Wu replied.
"Oh, I was a bit confused as to whether you were or not, considering that you subsidized them to the tune of NT$30 million with the Chinese Development Fund [this year]," Feng shot back, adding that huge portions of the fund were needlessly spent on "transportation costs" in facilitating cross-strait exchanges.
Feng, along with KMT Legislator Tsao Erh-chung (
If Taiwanese and Chinese visitors could fly to and from China via Kinmen or Matzu, instead of Hong Kong, the council wouldn't have to waste so much money on airfare for beneficiaries of the fund, the lawmakers added.
Ting, meanwhile, said that although he agreed with the fund's raison d'etre, Wu had left the fund and the council's overall budget open to attack by lawmakers by achieving little progress in opening up the country to China. Lawmakers, he added, were prone to freezing the council's budget as "revenge."
Half of the council's budget has been frozen by the pan-blue-dominated legislature since the beginning of the fiscal year.
"Actually, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Ting said to Wu.
"A frozen budget gives you less to do, while helping MAC achieve its goal of not engaging China. What do you care -- you still get to draw your salary, right?" Ting said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS