A colorful semiconductor tycoon yesterday unveiled plans to train more than 3 million “civilian warriors” to help defend the nation in the event of a Chinese invasion, donating NT$1 billion (US$32.8 million) of his own money.
Robert Tsao (曹興誠), 75, is one of Taiwan’s most successful businessmen and founded major chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). He has been increasingly outspoken against Beijing, and his pledge came after Chinese troops put on a huge show of force near the nation after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei last month.
For a week after Pelosi’s visit, China sent warships, missiles and fighter jets into the waters and skies around Taiwan, its largest and most aggressive exercises since the mid-1990s.
Photo: CNA
Tsao warned it would be “an intentional slaughter and vicious war crime and crime against humanity” if China were to use force against Taiwan.
The tycoon said he would put NT$600 million toward training 3 million “black bear warriors” in the next three years, adding that they could work alongside the military.
Another NT$400 million would be used to train 300,000 “marksmen” with shooting skills, he said.
Tsao, who no longer holds any position or title at UMC, said the risk posed by China is existential.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s threat to Taiwan is growing and the fight against [it] stands for freedom against slavery, democracy against authoritarianism and civilized against barbaric,” he said.
“If we can successfully resist China’s ambitions, we not only will be able to safeguard our homeland, but make a big contribution to the world situation and the development of civilization,” he added.
Taiwan has spent decades living alongside China’s threats, but the saber-rattling has become more pronounced under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
China’s most authoritarian leader in a generation, Xi is on the cusp of securing an unprecedented third term later this year and has made gaining Taiwan a key part of his “national rejuvenation” goals.
Taiwan remains massively outgunned, with 88,000 ground forces compared with China’s 1 million troops, the US Department of Defense says.
Mandatory military service for Taiwanese men is just four months, and Taiwanese and US strategists have increasingly pushed Taipei to adopt a “porcupine” strategy of asymmetric warfare, which would include training civilians to fight.
Russia’s stalled invasion of Ukraine has also focused attention in Taiwan on the threats posed by a giant authoritarian neighbor and how huge armies can be resisted by a much smaller, but determined defender.
Tsao yesterday also announced that he had regained Taiwanese citizenship.
Showing an enlarged copy of his Republic of China identification card, Tsao told reporters that he had renounced his Singaporean citizenship, which he obtained in 2011, and was “so excited” to have his original citizenship restored.
From now on, he would stand with his “courageous compatriots” against any invasion by China and ensure that Taiwan remains “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” he said, likening Taiwan to the US.
Additional reporting by CNA
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS