If Taiwan remains safe, global supply chains of vital semiconductors would also be secure, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said on a visit to the US on Tuesday.
Wang made the comments at an event hosted by Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies as China steps up military pressure on Taiwan, which produces the vast majority of the world’s most advanced computer chips.
Wang is in the US this week to respond to what her ministry called “concerns” about supply chains and geopolitical issues, and to visit US tech firms that are major customers of Taiwanese semiconductor companies.
Photo courtesy of Ministry of Economic Affairs
Taiwan is keen for more cooperation with the US to ensure resilient supply chains, she said.
Given Taiwan’s key role in the high-tech sector, China would also be affected should it interfere in Taiwan, she said.
If the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), were to be taken over by military force, this would stop its operations, she added.
Wang also cited US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as saying that if anything were to happen to Taiwan, the effect on the global economy would be “devastating.”
“I would like to put it in another way,” she said. “If Taiwan is safe, the global supply chain will also be secure. This is in the world’s greatest interest for Taiwan to work with US and other allies to maintain the most efficient production.”
Taiwan appreciated bipartisan support in the US Congress to bolster Taiwan-US relations, Wang said.
She reiterated comments from Taipei on US legislation to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made with US equipment, saying that Taiwanese firms would follow international regulations.
Asked whether Taiwan was concerned that US government subsidies to encourage reshoring of chip manufacturing could lessen US reliance on Taiwan, she said the Taiwanese semiconductor supply chain was “very, very concrete,” having been built up over more than 40 years.
“We have a very huge supply chain in Taiwan that is difficult to duplicate or difficult to replace,” she said.
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