President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday outlined four key aspects of Taiwan’s national security resilience at a forum in Taipei, which was hosted by the Liberty Times (The Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) and co-organized by Chunghwa Telecom Co.
The four key aspects of resilience cover supply chain security, digital communications, whole-of-society defense and the economy, Lai said in his speech.
Lai said there is a great need to improve supply chain resilience in the face of geopolitical tensions and global trade volatility.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
Taiwan plays a critical role in the global semiconductor supply chain, he said, adding that the government would continue working to improve the country’s key technological capacities.
Regarding digital communications resilience, Lai said the government is promoting multi-layered network construction and protection.
The government is also seeking to deploy sovereign satellites to ensure uninterrupted digital communications under any circumstances, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, a nation's resilience must be built on the confidence and cohesion of its people, not on national defense alone, Lai said.
He emphasized that only with the participation of all citizens can "whole-of-society defense resilience" be realized and be able to respond to various challenges.
As for economic resilience, Lai specifically mentioned a government task to assist 1.6 million small and medium-sized enterprises in upgrading and transforming amid the threat of US tariffs.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
He also urged financial institutions, within their risk tolerance, to continue offering loans to small and medium-sized businesses during hard times and to overcome difficulties together.
At the forum, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said Taiwan’s overseas industrial expansion can help the country respond more promptly to natural disasters and global uncertainties.
Taiwan’s industrial clusters, especially in the semiconductor sector, are highly concentrated and efficient, Kung said.
However, they also face risks because of their concentrated nature, he added.
Overseas deployments, together with partnerships with foreign companies, can provide rapid support when operations in Taiwan are disrupted, helping the resilience of the nation’s industrial ecosystem, he said.
For example, a chip company in the US mitigated the effects of a major earthquake in Taiwan a few years ago by dispatching workers and materials from its bases in Japan to Taiwan within 24 hours, he said.
That is “a very good model” made possible by overseas industrial expansion, Kung said.
Opposition parties have raised concerns that expansion — particularly by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US, where it is building state-of-the-art foundries — risks undermining Taiwan’s competitive edge in semiconductor manufacturing.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has multiple foundries in Taiwan and in the past few years has expanded its presence to Japan, the US and Germany to produce advanced chips.
Kung described Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem as a “model of success,” highlighting its global leadership in technology and efficiency.
“Taiwanese chips should operate around the clock in every corner of the world, demonstrating Taiwan’s economic strength,” he said.
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