The legislative Home and Nations Committee meeting adjourned early yesterday amid a near brawl and shouting by lawmakers over an amendment proposing to lift the ban on Taiwanese investment in high-tech items in China.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Chi-chu (李紀珠) introduced an amendment to the Statute Governing Relations between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) that called for the lifting of restrictions on relocating certain technologies and materials from Taiwan to China.
The bill sparked immediate bickering between ruling and opposition party lawmakers.
PHOTO: CNA
The verbal sparring almost became physical when Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator David Huang (黃適卓) discovered that executives from the electronics, semiconductor and petroleum sectors -- including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker -- were in attendance.
Pounding a desk and screaming, Huang accused the committee convener, Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator Tsai Hau (蔡豪), of ambushing pan-green lawmakers opposed to the bill by secretly inviting the executives to the meeting to influence its outcome.
"The KMT doesn't love Taiwan," Huang shouted. "It's trying to sell us out to China!"
"I'll be waiting outside the legislature for you later," Tsai threatened. "How about that?"
Sponsored by 44 pan-blue lawmakers, the bill seeks to alter Article 35 of the statute by allowing Taiwan-based businesses to relocate technologies related to mass production, especially of high-tech products, to China as long as the technologies are already in China and such transfers don't violate international rules on trade and transfers.
The bill would allow chipmakers to use 0.18-micron technology to manufacture chips in China, while other high-tech companies could transfer a range of now restricted components, including liquid-crystal-display panels, to China to ramp up mass production there, according to a Mainland Affairs Council statement.
The bill would lead to a disproportionate amount of investment flowing to China and a further hollowing out of the economy as the nation's production and technology shift to China, the council warned.
Local chipmakers are allowed to transfer currently restricted 0.18-micron technology to China to produce eight to 12-inch wafer fabs there, as long as the Ministry of Economic Affairs approves such transfers. However, the application process is typically long and arduous.
The council's statement also included a long list of restricted items, including chemical and biological agents and other sensitive technologies, that even Lee acknowledged should, "for the sake of national security, be subject to some restrictions on cross-strait investment and technical cooperation."
The 102 restricted items, the council said in its statement, account for a mere 1.42 percent of investment by the local manufacturing sector, and could have military applications. To date, Taiwan has already invested US$57.5 billion in China, a market now home to more than 55 percent of Taiwan's total overseas investment, it added.
"Overseas investment is already too concentrated in China, and that has led to some negative impact [on the nation]," it said.
The message from pan-blue lawmakers yesterday, however, was just the opposite.
"This bill is vital to give our manufacturers an edge and increase the nation's economic competitiveness," Lee said.
Current rules on technology transfers, the bill's sponsors said in a statement, are vague, outdated and the reason behind local businesses' losing out on vital market opportunities in China as the nation slips further into economic "malaise."
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final
EYE ON MAYORS: The DPP would file a complaint with the Control Yuan against Ko and Chiang over their handling of reports of abuse at a preschool in the city The Taipei City Government’s belated response under Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and his predecessor, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), to alleged child sex abuse at a kindergarten resulted in more children being victimized, two Taipei City Councilors said yesterday. A Taipei preschool teacher has been charged with sexually abusing six children from 2021 to last year at a school registered to his mother. Prosecutors are reportedly considering additional charges amid a wave of new accusations allegedly linking the suspect to 20 other abused children and the discovery at his residence of more than 600 sexually explicit videos featuring minors. The