US assistance securing more COVID-19 vaccines could serve to protect the critical semiconductor industry at a time of tight chip supplies globally and a rising number of infections in Taiwan, a senior Taiwanese official in New York said in an interview on Thursday.
“While for now the uptick [in COVID-19 cases] hasn’t had an impact, if it lasts too long there could be logistical problems,” Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) Director-General James Lee (李光章) said. “That’s why it’s urgent. We hope the international community can help release vaccines as soon as possible to help control the outbreak.”
Beyond the humanitarian plea for help fighting the pandemic, Lee’s argument might resonate because of deep concern in US government and business about the shortage of chips used in everything from mobile phones to automobiles.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Taiwan is facing hundreds of untraceable infections after a year of being one of the biggest success stories of COVID-19 containment.
The new surge has been confined so far mainly to Taipei and New Taipei City, and has not affected the operations of major technology firms, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), as most of their operations are located farther south.
However, a drought has left hydroelectric plants operating at limited capacity, contributing to power outages in major cities across the nation, including locations where the world’s biggest computer chip businesses operate.
The government earlier this week pledged to try to keep the world supplied with chips and projected a limited impact from its worst outbreak so far. Keeping up production is critical not just for Taiwan’s growth, but because the nation is the world’s main supplier of advanced computer chips.
The concentration of chip manufacturing in Taiwan and a global shortage fueled in part by the COVID-19 pandemic has quickly become a geopolitical issue, with governments around the world racing to secure additional supplies and vowing to build their own locally based chipmaking industries.
Although Taiwan has ranked among the top places in the world in its handling of the pandemic, it has been slower to acquire and distribute shots. So far, only 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca PLC’s COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered to Taiwan.
Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) yesterday said that she was trying to ensure that Moderna Inc shots the government has ordered arrive next month.
The government is also in talks with the White House to obtain a portion of the 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines US President Joe Biden pledged to donate.
Biden on Monday announced that his administration would send doses of the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE, Moderna Inc and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, on top of 60 million AstraZeneca doses he had already planned to give to other countries.
“We have talked to the Biden administration and we work closely together,” Lee said. “We expect them to help.”
“The US government has been very supportive of Taiwan and that is under their consideration. We expect that pretty soon the White House will have a decision,” he added.
Additional reporting by Reuters
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for