Civil groups yesterday recommended alterations to proposed regulations encouraging the establishment of semiconductor institutes, saying that China has been using cross-strait academic collaboration to steal technology.
The Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee on March 22 passed a preliminary review of a bill on innovation in industry-university cooperation and talent cultivation in national key areas, which would relax restrictions and provide funding to encourage closer collaboration between sectors, facilitating research and training of highly skilled workers.
However, groups including the Economic Democracy Union and the National Students’ Union of Taiwan have voiced skepticism about the proposal, saying that protections against theft by Chinese entities are needed.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
China has in the past few years been using collaboration between Tsinghua University in Beijing and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Hsinchu to syphon off Taiwanese talent and technology, Taiwan Citizen Front head of organization Hsu Kuang-tse (許冠澤) told a news conference in Taipei.
Examples include an innovation competition started by the Tsinghua Alumni Association in 2015, which was expanded to incorporate Taiwan and China’s Fujian Province in 2019, Hsu said.
The leading group on talent in the Xiamen Municipal Party Committee directs the event, which is judged exclusively by Chinese industrial and private equity firms, he said.
“It is abundantly clear that the goal of these companies is to poach talent,” he said.
Economic Democracy Union researcher Chiang Min-yen (江旻諺) said that Tsinghua University takes advantage of its historical connection to NTHU to carry out “united front” work.
The draft regulations lack provisions to safeguard against this type of infiltration, Chiang said.
Tsinghua University last month established its School of Integrated Circuits to train semiconductor technicians shortly after NTHU approved a plan to create a semiconductor institute, he said.
During the opening ceremony, Tsinghua University president Qiu Yong (邱勇) said that the institute’s greatest aim is to “serve the nation” of China, Chiang said, adding that Taiwan must not allow its key technologies to be stolen through exchanges between the two universities.
Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) suggested two revisions to the draft regulations.
First, Taiwan’s semiconductor institutes must ban students from China, as well as from South Korea, as it is Taiwan’s biggest competitor in the field, Lai said.
Second, the institutes must impose nondisclosure measures and prohibit students from working for competitor nations for a period, he said.
Employees are usually ordered to maintain confidentiality by their employers, Lai said, adding that industry-academia arrangements should have similar measures.
The Ministry of Education has failed to develop tactics to address this issue, he said.
“Is the ministry really the right agency to be governing these institutes?” he asked, recommending that the Ministry of Science and Technology take the helm instead.
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