Not only China wants our science secrets: officials

"The regulations are designed to comprehensively protect Taiwan. They are not only targeted at China. We aim to maintain Taiwan's competitiveness by building safe relations with other countries, including China."

Chen Chien-jen, National Science Council minister

The National Science Council's regulations on sensitive scientific and technological information are designed with an eye not only on China, but also on the rest of the world to ensure the nation's competitiveness, Council Minister Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.

Chen that the new Cabinet, under the principle of "active management, effective opening," might further encourage lawmakers to pass a draft bill on the protection of sensitive technology, which the council compiled in 2002 as a revision of the National Technology Protection Law (國家科技保護法).

When increasing numbers of Taiwanese chipmakers started to invest in wafer-manufacturing plants in China around 2002, the council drew up a set of regulations aimed at preventing the loss of sensitive technology, Chen said.

"The regulations are designed to comprehensively protect Taiwan. They are not only targeted at China," he said.

"We aim to maintain Taiwan's competitiveness by building safe relations with other countries, including China," Chen said.

He said that the draft must be passed as soon as possible because opportunities might be lost if arbitrary technology exchanges with overseas companies were permitted to continue.

As an example, Chen said that China usurped Taiwan's role as a leading supplier of eels to the Japanese market after Taiwanese farmers inadvertently gave their counterparts in China access to advanced technologies and know-how on eel production.

In the early 1990s, Taiwan supplied half of the Japanese market's demand for eels, but ever since 1996 the production of eels in Taiwan has been halved because of competition from China.

Chen that the passage of the draft is especially urgent.

Most countries, especially the US, have their own regulations on the export of certain sensitive technologies, ranging from space technology and high-speed computing to biotechnology, Chen added.

Council Deputy Minister Shieh Ching-jyh (謝清志) said that until the draft is passed, the government will use the existing list of proscribed technologies.

Nevertheless, council officials said yesterday that collaboration with countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East would continue to be encouraged.

Another deputy minister, Chi Guo-chung (紀國鐘), said that Slovakia desperately needs Taiwan's assistance in building a science park to boost its high-tech industries.

Other research projects are being carried out in the Czech Republic and Poland, among other countries, Chi said.