Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island.
The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan.
National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having “more pros than cons” for Taiwan. Such restrictions are likely to prompt more Taiwanese companies to shift production back from China and redirect export orders to local manufacturers, he said.
Photo: Reuters
When asked by a lawmaker yesterday about Taiwan’s preparations for the US election results, Liu said that while the island might also face a 10 percent tariff on its goods, “the impact would be limited, as most suppliers in Taiwan are primarily doing contract manufacturing serving the US clients.”
A Trump victory could make a bigger difference for Taiwan than a win by US Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Liu, though he said Taiwan is prepared for various outcomes.
Responding to lawmaker questioning, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said he expected Harris would likely continue the Democratic Party’s policies on Taiwan.
Kuo acknowledged that Trump could introduce measures that might prove harmful for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. But Taiwan “will have strategies in place to respond, and the impact will not be as severe as some anticipate,” he said.
China claims the self-governing democracy is its territory, and has threatened to seize the island by force if needed. US President Joe Biden has repeatedly vowed to defend Taiwan in the event of an “unprecedented attack.”
In an interview with CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” Harris hewed closer to the traditional US policy of “strategic ambiguity” while saying it’s important to help Taiwan defend itself.
Trump has been less supportive, telling Bloomberg Businessweek earlier this year that Taiwan stole the US’s chip business. He also called for the island to pay more for defense and noted the challenges of defending it from Beijing. “Taiwan is 9,500 miles away,” Trump said. “It’s 68 miles away from China.”
In a subsequent interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait last month, Trump didn’t answer directly when asked if American troops would defend Taiwan if China invaded.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS