Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), arguably the Taiwan government's most outspoken critic of China, said yesterday the nation's growing economic dependence on its giant neighbor has become a major concern.
Lu told the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei that Beijing had systematically lured Taiwan businessmen entranced by the prospect of China's vast market.
"The most worrying part of this phenomenon is that Taiwan's investment in China exceeds 2.45 percent of Taiwan's GDP, 50 times that of Japan and 80 times that of the US," Lu said.
Lu's caution came just a week after Taiwan lifted a 50-year ban on direct trade and investment in China as a goodwill gesture toward China and in a bid to improve President Chen Shui-bian's (
Taiwan businessmen have clamored for direct trade and transport links with China for years. But the government has resisted due to national security considerations.
Lu likened the relationship between Taiwan and China to a cat and a lion. "The lion needs to be tamed and the cat needs to be taken care of. In other words, they should not be put in the same cage before the lion is tamed."
Lu, reviled by Beijing as the "scum of the nation," said China's "one country, two systems" formula for reunification ignored the fact that Taiwan is a full-fledged democracy.
She said a recent row over Taiwan's representation at a summit of Asia Pacific leaders in Shanghai that led to the nation boycotting the meeting has alienated Taiwan's 23 million people.
She added that by excluding Taiwan, China has aroused the indignation of the whole Taiwanese people ...."
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to