The US is working with Taiwan to restructure global supply chains under the shared values of transparency and accountability, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen said, according to a transcript released by AIT yesterday.
Christensen made the remarks on Tuesday at the International Investment Forum in Taipei hosted by the Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity Council of Taiwan.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the risks of over-reliance on one country or supplier for critical materials, such as medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, and for industries that are of strategic importance to shared economies, Christensen said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Washington aims to diversify and bring supply chains closer to end users, and ensure that countries like China do not hold supply chains hostage for political purposes, he said.
The US works with like-minded partners, including Taiwan, Japan and the EU, to develop new supply chains based on shared values, he added.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) plans to boost investment in the US send “an unmistakable signal that the future of high-tech supply chains remains in the US-Taiwan nexus,” Christensen said.
Highlighting the importance of accountability, transparency, reciprocity, respect for the rule of law and human rights, he said: “We would call these American values. We would also call them Taiwan values.”
At another forum in Taipei yesterday, the AIT and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US issued a joint declaration on 5G security, echoing the Prague Proposals.
The Prague Proposals resulted from a 5G security conference hosted by the Czech Republic in May last year, and attended by officials and experts from more than 30 countries.
The US’ 5G Clean Path, announced by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in April, is an end-to-end communication that does not use any transmission, control, computing, or storage equipment from extremely problematic, untrusted IT vendors, such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and ZTE Corp (中興), Christensen said at yesterday’s forum.
The joint statement said that 5G suppliers should provide products and services that enable fair competition and downstream development by the maximum number of market participants.
It listed four criteria for evaluating 5G suppliers: Network hardware and software suppliers should not be subject, without independent judicial review, to control by a foreign government; suppliers should be financed openly and transparently; they should have transparent ownership, partnerships and corporate governance structures; and they should exemplify a commitment to innovation and respect for intellectual property rights.
Taiwan, on the front line of cyberdefense, has pre-emptively excluded hardware and software with cybersecurity risks, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said.
All of Taiwan’s 5G suppliers — Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信) and Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星) — are listed in the US’ Clean Path, showing that Taiwan is a trustworthy partner, he said.
The joint declaration signals that Taiwan-US cooperation in protecting cybersecurity has become institutionalized, Wu said, adding that Taiwan would continue to work with the US and other like-minded countries to develop 5G network standards.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
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