The Cabinet yesterday proposed tougher penalties for high-tech exports to China amid escalating tensions following Beijing's enactment of an "Anti-Secession" Law last month, according to a press release issued by the National Science Council.
The draft of the sensitive scientific technology protection bill (
The bill will be submitted to the legislature for review soon, the statement said.
The council in 2002 classified the so-called "sensitive technologies" into three categories: those which could have a significant impact on national security, those with a significant impact on technological competitiveness and those which impact national security or competitiveness to a lesser extent.
Anyone convicted of violating the restrictions on sensitive technologies would face a sentence of up to 10-and-a-half years in prison and/or a fine of up to NT$10 million, according to the statement.
The government prohibits companies from transferring such technologies as 12-inch wafer manufacturing, integrated-circuit (IC) design, IC packaging and testing, as well as high-end flat-panel display production, to China, as these technologies are regarded as "sensitive" by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The Cabinet's move came at the request of politicians from the Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), which together hold 101 seats in the 225-seat legislature. They urged the Cabinet to make the technology protection law a top priority in this session and urged their lawmaking peers to pass it as soon as possible.
"The bill is a bit late, but better than doing nothing," TSU spokesman Chen Chien-ming (
"Taiwan needs to increase the protection of its high-tech industries while engaging in civil exchanges with China," Chen said.
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