World leaders attending the APEC meeting in Bangkok have expressed “very strong expectations” that regional peace and stability would continue to be upheld, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀), Taiwan’s representative to APEC, told an international news conference yesterday.
Chang was responding to media questions about whether geopolitical tensions would be lowered by Taiwan’s attendance at the regional event.
Neither he nor world leaders and representatives he spoke with had explicitly brought up such issues, “but there is no doubt” that there are such expectations, he said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan’s APEC delegation via CNA
He told reporters that he had conveyed without fail the messages President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had asked him to share in both of his speeches at the summit.
The APEC event was “quite enjoyable” and he considered his task “fulfilled in all ways,” he said, adding that he met with more people than at the 2018 APEC meeting in Papua New Guinea.
In addition to meeting with US Vice President Kamala Harris, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Japanese Prime Minister Fushida Kumio, Chang said he had crossed paths with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in a lounge area on the first day and that they had exchanged greetings.
Photo:Reuters
“I congratulated him on the success of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th congress,” Chang said, adding that Xi asked after his health and mentioned that he remembered meeting Chang in Papua New Guinea four years ago.
“It was a very happy, polite interaction,” Chang said, adding that tensions across the Taiwan Strait were not discussed.
“I met with over half of all 21 leaders and representatives and exchanged opinions with them,” Chang said.
Chang said he discussed TSMC’s new US$12 billion plant in Arizona with Harris at a separate meeting on the summit’s sidelines.
He told Harris that Taiwan has invited US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to a “tool-in” ceremony for the plant on Dec. 6, although production would not start immediately, he said, adding Harris focused mostly on semiconductors during their conversation and welcomed TSMC’s investment in Arizona.
During the exchange, Harris reiterated the US’ resolve to support and help Taiwan, he said.
Chang did not indicate if anything more was said on that issue.
Additional reporting by Reuters and CNA
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS