Taiwan's high-tech professionals will not be allowed to work for certain Chinese agencies, but they will be allowed to work in most of China's companies, a Taiwan official said yesterday.
The professionals will be barred from working for Chinese government agencies, military institutions and organizations affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
Except for these institutions, they will be green-lighted to work for all Chinese companies in China, provided the companies pose no threat to Taiwan's national security and interests.
Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Jonathan Liu (
The draft bill was approved by the Cabinet yesterday but the details still have to be finalized, according to Liu.
"We will set up a mechanism to examine those special cases that are hyper-sensitive," Liu added, "and the government will remain flexible about how it reacts to every situation."
Currently, Taiwan nationals are banned from working for Chinese institutions before gaining permission from the Taiwan government.
The new regulations are seen as a result of the government's decision last March to allow local chipmakers to invest in eight-inch wafer fabrication plants in China if they meet certain conditions.
In addition, the council yesterday also submitted a report to the Executive Yuan on illegal investments by local companies in China-based chipmakers.
Liu said that some Taiwanese companies admitted they had illegally invested in the Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co (SMIC, 中芯國際集成電路), Chinese Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (宏力半導體), and a semiconductor factory in Suzhou called He Jian Technology (和艦科技).
The government has pledged to severely punish local companies that violate the regulations on investing in China.
"These Taiwanese companies have promised to retrieve their investments from China," Liu said.
Liu said, however, that due to the difficulties of tracing capital flow and examining documents owned by Chinese companies, the council cannot be sure if other Taiwanese companies are illegally investing in China or not.
"The government has asked some suspect companies to sign an affidavit stating that they will not invest in such Chinese semiconductor companies." Liu said.
If these companies are found to be dishonest regarding the matter, they could be punished with criminal charges that could result in jail terms of up to 5 years.
The three Chinese companies mentioned above have long been suspected of being partially backed by Taiwanese capital and know-how.
Liu declined to reveal the Taiwanese companies which have illegally invested in these Chinese firms or the total amount that was invested.
He said that once the investigation is completed, the government will make a detailed report to the public.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS