The National Science and Technology Council is slated to reveal a critical technologies list soon to safeguard Taiwan’s technological competitive edges and national security in the wake of the US’ warning about mounting risk from China, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said yesterday.
“We have been in discussions for some time,” Wang told reporters in response to a question about whether Taiwan would follow in the steps of the US and tighten its grip over exports of semiconductor and other key technologies.
“The National Science and Technology Council is to release the list regarding critical technologies soon. Taiwan is to impose severe curbs on those technologies,” Wang said. “Taiwan’s critical technological competencies and national security will be our main consideration.”
Photo: CNA
The ministry has recognized foundry, semiconductor packaging and testing, as well as LCD technologies as some of the nation’s critical technologies with strategic importance. Local semiconductor and LCD companies are faced with the ministry’s strict scrutiny and assessment before being granted approval to invest advanced technologies in China, or to conduct equity transfers to Chinese peers.
The National Science and Technology Council said a special task force is scheduled to convene a meeting by the end of this year to identify new core and critical technologies and to impose curbs on the exports of those key technologies. That will be a further step taken by the council more than half a year after the new regulation on the designation of national core critical technologies had taken effect in April.
The council said it aims to prevent technology leaks to China, including Hong Kong and Macau, or foreign hostile forces, to prevent them from undermining the nation’s national security, industrial competitiveness or economic development.
Semiconductors, agriculture, aerospace, and information and communications technology are expected to be on the list, National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told Nikkei Asia earlier this week.
The EU is to assess whether semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and biotechnology pose a risk to the bloc’s economic security, which could lead to curbs on exports or investments in third countries such as China, Reuters reported.
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told a US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on Wednesday that reports of Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) chip breakthrough were “incredibly disturbing.”
Raimondo said more resources were needed for export controls enforcement and that the department should be granted more power to check whether any technology transactions could pose national security risks.
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