Taiwan is reportedly to publish a list of key technologies it wants to protect from China’s reach, Nikkei Asia reported yesterday, citing National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄).
The report comes as the US is rumored to be planning to expand its ban on chip exports to China this month and the EU this week published a list of key technologies crucial to the bloc’s economic security.
“Before the end of the year, the National Science and Technology Council will announce what are considered core technologies that need to be protected,” Nikkei Asia quoted Koo as saying.
Photo: Chen Yun, Taipei Times
It is expected to cover industries including semiconductors, agriculture, aerospace, and information and communications technology, the report said.
In addition to technology transfers, Taipei would also focus on issues related to investments, personnel and operations in those industries, it added.
“The new policy will elevate critical technology in supply chain and semiconductors to a national security level, enabling closer scrutiny. The aim is to prevent efforts to acquire crucial tech by China, which is targeting upstream IC design in Taiwan,” Koo was quoted as saying.
Taiwan last year enacted amendments to the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), imposing harsher punishments for economic espionage and technology theft.
The Investment Commission also revised the Regulations for Permission on Investment or Technology Cooperation in the Mainland Area (在大陸地區從事投資或技術合作許可辦法), requiring Taiwanese firms to obtain approval if they plan to sell their local assets, factories or transfer their equities in China to avoid the risk of technology leakage.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has pledged to investigate if Taiwanese firms helping Huawei Technologies Co (華為) with chipmaking plants in China have breached US sanctions against the Chinese tech giant, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said on Wednesday.
Wang was responding to a request by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee that followed a Bloomberg News report this week identifying four firms working on chip fabs backed by Huawei in China.
Lai asked for a preliminary report on the probe within a month.
The Central News Agency also cited an unidentified ministry official saying its investment department would look into whether the firms are conducting their businesses in China within the scope of applications approved by Taipei.
The firms include chip material reseller Topco Scientific Co (崇越), clean room equipment supplier L&K Engineering Co (亞翔), construction specialist United Integrated Services Co (漢唐) and chemical supply system provider Cica-Huntek Chemical Technology Taiwan Co (矽科宏晟), Bloomberg News reported.
Wang told lawmakers that the four companies had helped Huawei with “wastewater and environmental protection equipment” for its factories, and not with sensitive technologies that could impact national security.
The Bloomberg report comes after Huawei unveiled a smartphone in late August with an advanced made-in-China chip, spurring alarm in Washington and calls to completely cut off Huawei and its Shanghai-based chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯).
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told a US Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday that reports of a chip breakthrough by Huawei are “incredibly disturbing” and emphasized that her department needs more ways to enforce its export-control regimen.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS