Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions.
Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting.
Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp.
Photo: CNA
Liu, who stepped down in June after six years as TSMC chairman, did not mention specific instances, saying only that this tendency would hinder “imagination” and “curiosity” in discussions.
He cited the US as an example and said policy discussions had been dominated by either the “pro-Trump” or “anti-Trump” camp — referring to former US president Donald Trump, who is seeking a return to the White House in this year’s election — often seeking to prioritize its agenda above all else.
Instead, he called for the elimination of binary thinking and for bringing together every stakeholder in society to help “make Taiwan strong.”
Taiwan needs to scramble to confront its economic disadvantages, particularly its limited market size, he said.
If a company does not see the entire world as a potential market, it will sooner or later find itself “confined” to the domestic market, Liu said.
While such a business strategy might still make company executives wealthy, its positive impact on Taiwan’s economy might not be long-lasting, he said.
“Taiwan needs to identify opportunities where it can contribute to global market growth,” Liu said, adding that Taiwan’s next key industry would be determined by whether it has the potential to become a global supplier.
With that in mind, the government must focus its resources on developing and supporting “ecosystems” for industries where Taiwan has a competitive advantage in producing high-value-added goods to help capture the global market, he said.
Liu specifically mentioned the boom in the data center industry, which he described as “a gift suddenly falling from the sky,” likely alluding to recent plans by foreign tech giants, including Google, Amazon Web Services and Nvidia Corp, to build such centers in Taiwan.
Taiwan has to seize the opportunity to develop the “cooling system,” a critical part of a data center, he said, adding that having an edge in that realm would make Taiwan indispensable to the global community.
Established in July, the Executive Yuan’s Economic Development Committee has been described by Cho as a task force responsible for formulating policies and addressing various economic issues.
Apart from Liu, the commission includes nearly 60 representatives from enterprises, business associations and academia who serve as advisers.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US