If China invades Taiwan there would be no winners and everyone would lose, and people should draw lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war, which is not good for either side, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) told CNN.
The interview on the Fareed Zakaria GPS program on Sunday came at a time of heightened cross-strait tensions amid a potential visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“People in Taiwan have earned their democratic system and they want to choose their way of life,” Liu said in the interview. “Indeed, chip supply is a critical business in Taiwan, but had there been a war in Taiwan, probably the chip is not the most important thing we should worry about, because this invasion is destruction of the world rules-based order. The geopolitical landscape would totally change.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Liu said the Russia-Ukraine war is not good for either side and it is a lose-lose-lose scenario for the Western world, Russia and Ukraine.
People should draw lessons from the war in Ukraine, and look at Taiwan and decide how to avoid a war, and how to ensure the engine of the world economy continues humming, he said.
Asked by Zakaria what Taiwan would look like in the future, Liu said that he hopes Taiwan does not get discriminated against because it is close to China.
“No matter your relation with China, Taiwan is Taiwan,” Liu said. “We want to unleash the innovation for the world into the future continuously and not to be scared because we have some disputes with our neighbors.”
Zakaria asked Liu whether Taiwan being so integral to the Chinese supply chain creates a danger for Taiwan or serves as a deterrent since Beijing says that it needs to have total control of this valuable asset.
Liu said that China accounts for about 10 percent of TSMC’s business and that it only supplies the consumer market rather than the military or other markets.
“If they [China] need us, it is not a bad thing,” he said.
However, he warned that a military invasion by China would make TSMC factories inoperable and that it would also hurt China.
“Because our interruption would create great economic turmoil in China — suddenly their most advanced component supply disappears. It is an interruption, I must say, so people will think twice on this,” Liu said. “Nobody can control TSMC by force ... because it is a sophisticated manufacturing facility that depends on the real-time connection with the outside world,” such as Europe, the US and Japan for materials, chemicals and engineering software.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) yesterday told reporters that Liu’s comments were correct because if China were to invade, Taiwan’s semiconductors would not be available to the world and that would cause serious economic problems.
“That is why we say if something happens to Taiwan, the world would suffer the consequences,” Wang said.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
RSS