Members of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday urged banks not to use Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s (華為) equipment due to national security concerns, after Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Japan moved to restrict the Chinese telecom’s business.
However, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told the committee that the commission needs to look at domestic regulations and WTO agreements to see whether it has the right to restrict banks from using Huawei’s equipment.
Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) was arrested on Dec. 1 in Canada on a US extradition request, after US authorities launched an investigation into alleged breaches of US sanctions on Iran by the Chinese firm.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Several nations have expressed national security concerns about the use of Huawei’s products, which have been dubbed a “Trojan horse,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Wan-ju (余宛如) said.
The company has provided products to financial institutions to develop digital finance services, Yu said, urging the commission to ban domestic banks from using Huawei’s equipment.
Koo said that most banks in the nation use components made by IBM Corp in their servers, which he called their “core equipment.”
“I do not think Huawei has a high market share in terms of such equipment,” he said.
However, the commission would review the issue soon, Koo said, adding that it does not use any Chinese-made cybersecurity equipment.
Yu said that Taiwanese banks, including Web-only banks that are to be launched next year, should not be allowed to use any software or hardware made in China.
“At least state-owned banks should not use Huawei’s equipment, nor their chairpeople and presidents use Huawei smartphones or the messaging app WeChat (微信),” she said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said financial institutions that use Huawei’s products should detail the type of equipment they use.
Koo said he does not use WeChat.
“The FSC and financial institutions know that national security is important, but we have to confirm if such a ban is legal,” Koo said, adding that it is easier to ask state-run banks to ban Huawei’s products, but it would be another story for private banks.
Most Taiwanese banks use IBM products, so it would not be a problem if the commission were to ban the use of Huawei products in the financial sector, a bank manager told the Taipei Times by telephone on condition of anonymity.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
RSS