A Chinese-funded research institute had set up an office at Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that Beijing could have used it to attract talent to its semiconductor industry, which is short of workers.
The Ministry of Education has ordered the office to shut immediately, NTHU said, adding that the office’s personnel should depart without delay.
Yesterday, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported that the Cross-Strait Tsinghua Research Institute (清華海峽研究院) had established an office at NTHU’s main campus in Hsinchu City without securing approval from the government.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The campus is known as a key incubator of high-tech talent for the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區).
The newspaper said that the institute — which was founded by the NTHU Alumni Association in cooperation with China’s Xiamen City Government and Tsinghua University — used its office in Taiwan to research, develop and invest in technologies, as well as to recruit high-tech talent, which would contravene the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
The security ramifications were yesterday scrutinized by lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
NSB Deputy Director-General Chen Chin-kuang (陳進廣) told Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) that the Liberty Times report was accurate, adding that security and intelligence officials were fully aware of the situation.
NTHU did not follow lawful procedures for establishing such an office on a university campus, Chen said, referring questions about details to the ministry.
Chen told DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) that the institute’s office, like all organizations based in China, was under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.
“China needs talent for its semiconductor industry and other high-tech sectors. To meet demand, it still needs about 600,000 workers,” Chen said.
Wang and Chao said that the government must take the matter seriously, as the US, Australia and several European countries are taking action against China’s infiltration of university campuses.
The institute was established by certain university alumni to promote education and support entrepreneurship, NTHU said in a statement.
The Tzu-chiang Foundation of Science and Technology (自強工業科學基金會), which was also established by NTHU alumni and is headquartered at the Hsinchu campus, leases space from the university, and it sublets some of that space to the institute, NTHU added.
“The institute does not belong to the university, nor is the university involved in its operations,” it said.
The institute has been closed for a while due to COVID-19, foundation chairman Ken Lu (盧崑瑞) said, adding that the foundation terminated its lease with the institute.
The ministry said that the university could be fined up to NT$500,000 for contravening Article 40-2 of the act, which prohibits non-profit legal persons, organizations or other institutions in China from establishing a liaison office or branch in Taiwan to engage in business activity.
A task force established by the ministry would continue to investigate the situation, it said.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said that the council became aware of the situation in July and asked the ministry about it in August.
“In the past, the government rarely investigated China’s infiltration into universities and research institutions, out of respect for academic freedom. This situation serves as an opportunity to investigate whether similar situations have occurred at other universities,” he said.
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS