US assistance securing more COVID-19 vaccines could serve to protect the critical semiconductor industry at a time of tight chip supplies globally and a rising number of infections in Taiwan, a senior Taiwanese official in New York said in an interview on Thursday.
“While for now the uptick [in COVID-19 cases] hasn’t had an impact, if it lasts too long there could be logistical problems,” Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) Director-General James Lee (李光章) said. “That’s why it’s urgent. We hope the international community can help release vaccines as soon as possible to help control the outbreak.”
Beyond the humanitarian plea for help fighting the pandemic, Lee’s argument might resonate because of deep concern in US government and business about the shortage of chips used in everything from mobile phones to automobiles.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Taiwan is facing hundreds of untraceable infections after a year of being one of the biggest success stories of COVID-19 containment.
The new surge has been confined so far mainly to Taipei and New Taipei City, and has not affected the operations of major technology firms, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), as most of their operations are located farther south.
However, a drought has left hydroelectric plants operating at limited capacity, contributing to power outages in major cities across the nation, including locations where the world’s biggest computer chip businesses operate.
The government earlier this week pledged to try to keep the world supplied with chips and projected a limited impact from its worst outbreak so far. Keeping up production is critical not just for Taiwan’s growth, but because the nation is the world’s main supplier of advanced computer chips.
The concentration of chip manufacturing in Taiwan and a global shortage fueled in part by the COVID-19 pandemic has quickly become a geopolitical issue, with governments around the world racing to secure additional supplies and vowing to build their own locally based chipmaking industries.
Although Taiwan has ranked among the top places in the world in its handling of the pandemic, it has been slower to acquire and distribute shots. So far, only 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca PLC’s COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered to Taiwan.
Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) yesterday said that she was trying to ensure that Moderna Inc shots the government has ordered arrive next month.
The government is also in talks with the White House to obtain a portion of the 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines US President Joe Biden pledged to donate.
Biden on Monday announced that his administration would send doses of the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE, Moderna Inc and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, on top of 60 million AstraZeneca doses he had already planned to give to other countries.
“We have talked to the Biden administration and we work closely together,” Lee said. “We expect them to help.”
“The US government has been very supportive of Taiwan and that is under their consideration. We expect that pretty soon the White House will have a decision,” he added.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)