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.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors