The US convened a preliminary meeting of a working group with East Asian countries, including Taiwan, to discuss semiconductor supply chain resilience and cooperation, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said yesterday.
“We exchanged views at a first preliminary meeting and hope everyone can discuss how to collaborate in the future on supply chain problems like the ones we recently encountered,” Wang told reporters in Taipei.
The global chip shortage, which over the past two years has wreaked havoc on supply chains and forced automakers to halt production, thrust chip powerhouse Taiwan into the spotlight and made supply chain management a bigger priority for governments around the world.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The preliminary meeting of the working group — dubbed “Chip 4” — also included representatives from South Korea and Japan, Wang said.
Details about the frequency of future meetings, including their schedule and topics, were not addressed, she said.
The countries are home to critical players in the global semiconductor industry, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker; South Korean memorychip giants Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix; and key Japanese suppliers of semiconductor materials and equipment.
Photo: CNA
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) last month told visiting US lawmakers that Taiwan is committed to ensuring its partners have reliable supplies of semiconductors, which she called “democracy chips,” and urged Taiwan-friendly governments to boost collaboration amid intensified threats from China.
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country’s top representative in Taiwan attended a preliminary meeting of “the US East Asian Semiconductor Supply Chain Resiliency Working Group” on Wednesday, hosted by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).
The AIT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kyung Kye-hyun, who heads Samsung’s chip business, last month said that his company has conveyed concerns about the proposed Chip 4 alliance, including the need for South Korea to seek China’s understanding before any negotiations.
Additional reporting by CNA
SWITCH TO BEIJING: The government severed diplomatic relations about an hour after Honduras announced the move, saying that no semi-official ties would be maintained Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Honduras and ended all cooperation with the Central American country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, about an hour and a half after the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Twitter at 8am Taiwan time that the nation would cut its ties with Taiwan. Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday sent Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina to Beijing to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations. She announced the plan on March 14 on Twitter. “To safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan is terminating diplomatic ties with Honduras with immediate effect” after communication with
TRADE MISSION: After Fijian elections in December last year, pro-democratic parties formed a coalition and overruled a name change imposed by the former government The Taipei Trade Office in Fiji has been restored to its former name, the Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Fiji on Friday last week issued a note verbale to the office saying that the name change was retroactively effective from March 15, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Wallace Chow (周民淦) told a news conference in Taipei. The mission’s diplomatic privileges have been reinstated as stipulated in Fiji’s Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Act, which was enacted in 1971, Chow said. Taiwan set up a trade
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday departed for a 12-day trip to China as scheduled, despite calls for him to cancel the trip after Honduras severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan as an apparent result of China’s dollar diplomacy. “This is my first trip to China. I was 37 when I began handling cross-strait affairs in the government. Now I am 73 and have waited 36 years for the visit. It is indeed a bit too long, but I am glad I can go,” Ma of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. “Aside from paying respects to
‘INDISPENSABLE ROLE’: Despite stopovers in the US, Tsai said the aim of her trip is to ‘demonstrate determination to deepen exchanges’ with the allies of the nation President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday afternoon left Taiwan on a 10-day trip to Central America that includes stopovers in New York and Los Angeles. “Through this visit, I will express my gratitude to diplomatic partners for their support of Taiwan,” Tsai said at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport shortly before boarding the plane. The trip to Guatemala and Belize — her first overseas journey since the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping around the world in early 2020 — aims to “demonstrate Taiwan’s determination to deepen exchanges” with its Central American allies, she said. Tsai said that she and her delegation would also explore the possibility
RSS