TSU lawmakers yesterday claimed that a leading chipmaker -- which is requesting the government lift its ban on the building of eight-inch wafer foundries in China -- has already jumped the gun by selling its equipment there at a time when the transaction is still illegal.
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC,
The allegation was another move by the TSU to pressure the government into postponing its decision to fully open investment channels to Beijing. The party says that the relaxation of investment curbs would sabotage Taiwan's national security and harm the industry's prospects if it is done without effective management measures.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
The lawmakers asked Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (
TSU lawmaker Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) said that UMC had sold some of its equipment for the manufacturing of eight-inch chips to Happy Wealth Holding on Jan. 18 for NT$8 billion (US$255 million), and the same package was immediately re-sold in Shanghai for NT$15 billion.
He said his party suspects that the NT$7 billion in profit was a device whereby UMC paid off officials who it lobbied to get approval to invest in China.
He then challenged the government's management measures, saying that UMC has put the private sector's interests above national interests. He said the company's engineers are transferring techniques for making eight-inch wafers to Beiling, which is currently only capable of manufacturing four-inch wafers.
"Where is the government when a dozen of UMC's top engineers are already stationed in Shanghai?" Lo asked.
Citing a report from ChinaNex news agency as an example, the lawmaker said the report indicates that UMC will invest NT$170 billion in a factory in Suzhou by next year.
"How can the government be managing the eight-inch wafer investment ban when it claimed that [China-bound] investments will not exceed NT$200 billion [when one company alone will invest NT$170 billion]?" he asked.
The government will decide by the end of this month whether to allow a request from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
UMC officials came out in defense of the company, saying that the Jan. 18 business deal was legal.
The officials acknowledged the transaction but said the two end companies are completely unrelated, and they could not tell Happy Wealth Holding who to sell its equipment to.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday dismissed reports that the Cabinet has promised the TSU that the government will postpone the relaxation of investment curbs until next January.
Yu said at the legislative session that he had never offered the postponement to the TSU, and that the Cabinet is still evaluating the matter and won't make its final decision until the end of this month.
According to Chinese-language media reports yesterday, the Cabinet has made a goodwill gesture to the TSU by promising that the relaxation won't be made until next January, following increasing pressure from the TSU.
The director of the TSU's policy center, Lee Shang-ren (
He said that communication between the party and the Cabinet has never ceased, but so far the TSU has never softened its calls for a postponement.
"The principles of the party won't be easily compromised," he said.
He said his party colleagues will continue pressuring the Cabinet until it can provide clear management measures and ways to punish enterprises that illegally move their business to China.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching