Chip Supply Chains Will be Secure, If Taiwan is Safe -Taiwan Minister

Taiwan’s Economic Affairs Minister Wang Mei-Hua said during a visit to the United States on Tuesday that if Taiwan remains secure, global supply chains of vital semiconductors will also be secure.

Wang made the comments at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, 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 United States this week to address what his office called “concerns” about supply chains and geopolitical issues and to visit U.S. tech companies that are major customers for Taiwanese semiconductor companies.

She said Taiwan wants more cooperation between Taiwan and the United States to ensure resilient supply chains.

Wang said that given Taiwan’s key role in the high-tech sector, China would also be affected if it intervened in Taiwan.

She said if the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC), were to be taken over by military force, it would halt its operations. Wang also quoted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as saying that if anything were to happen to Taiwan, the impact on the global economy would be “devastating”.

“I would like to present it in another way,” she said. “If Taiwan is safe, so will the global supply chain. It is in the world’s interest for Taiwan to work with the United States and other allies to maintain the most efficient production.”

Wang said Taiwan appreciates the bipartisan support of the U.S. Congress for strengthening Taiwan-U.S. relations and reiterated Taipei’s comments on U.S. legislation to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made with U.S. equipment, saying that Taiwanese companies would follow international regulations.

When asked if Taiwan was concerned that U.S. government subsidies to encourage the relocation of chip manufacturing would reduce U.S. dependence on Taiwan, she said Taiwan’s supply chain of semiconductor was “very, very concrete”, having been built over more than 40 years.

“We have a very large supply chain in Taiwan that is difficult to duplicate or difficult to replace.” she says. © Reuters

October 12, 2022