Germany welcomes Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to establish a new fab in Saxony, German Institute Taipei Director-General Jorg Polster said yesterday at a news briefing on the country’s election.
It is the first time the German Institute Taipei has held a briefing on Germany’s parliamentary election, which is “very important,” said Polster, who spoke in German with a Chinese interpreter.
Over the past few months, Germany’s electorate seemed to have undergone some changes regarding their choices, with the margins between the Social Democratic Party and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its smaller sister party the Christian Social Union in Bavaria being close, he said, adding that the Green Party was expected to garner more votes.
Photo: CNA
More observation is needed before knowing how the new German government would approach its relations with Taiwan and China, he said.
Germany last year launched an Indo-Pacific strategy, including a plan to send a patrol vessel to the South China Sea, Polster said.
How the new government would approach the Indo-Pacific strategy would also need more observation, he added.
German lawmakers’ understanding of Taiwan is mainly focused on the security of the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan’s success in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
Lawmakers would certainly be interested in forming a delegation to visit Taiwan, but how to make that happen during the pandemic would need to be deliberated after the new government is formed, he said, adding that he hopes to arrange a visit together with the Taipei Representative Office in the Federal Republic of Germany.
In July, TSMC said it was evaluating the feasibility of constructing a semiconductor fabrication plant in Germany.
Berlin welcomes the firm’s establishment plan, Polster said, adding that the east German state of Saxony would be a suitable location.
Polster, who succeeded former institute director-general Thomas Prinz in July, said he has met with Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮).
While he has not yet met with TSMC’s leaders, as a physicist, he would like to learn more about the company’s plans for the new fab, as well as other developments, he said.
Germany and Taiwan have many small and medium-sized enterprises, so he hopes to learn more about their operations in Taiwan, Polster said, adding that he is interested in visiting Taiwan’s science parks.
Other areas for ongoing cooperation include energy, culture, aviation and judicial exchanges, he said.
Taiwan and Germany regularly hold energy forums, with offshore wind energy being a sector of common interest, he said.
Considering there are many similarities between Taiwan’s judiciary system and Germany’s, he would also like to have more bilateral exchanges on legal institutions and judges, he said.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS