A US senator who sponsored the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act yesterday said that he planned to learn more about Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and promote closer links between the countries during his three-day trip to Taiwan.
US Senator Todd Young said during his meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that his visit from Monday to today had several purposes, including to show the US Congress’ bipartisan support for Taiwan.
Young said that as one of the sponsors of the CHIPS act, which US President Joe Biden signed into law last year to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors and counter China, he wanted to learn more about Taiwan’s semiconductor industry.
Photo: CNA
“I am here to learn how to continue do that [chip cooperation], sell more chips, and hire more people and [promote] more linkages between the US and Taiwan and other countries moving forward. That will benefit all of us,” he said.
Todd also said that his home state of Indiana had maintained a close friendship with Taiwan for decades. Its capital, Indianapolis, established a sister-city relationship with Taipei in 1978 before the state formed a “sisterhood” with Taiwan in 1979.
Indiana was the first US state to forge a sister relationship with Taiwan.
Recently, Indiana and Taiwan have signed agreements to promote academic research in semiconductors, he added.
The Republican senator said that while Americans have different views on a lot of issues, there was bipartisan support for Taiwan.
“Make no mistake, there is something Republicans and Democrats alike are unified on and will be unified. That is the importance of supporting the US-Taiwan relationship and holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable,” he said, without clarifying his remark about China.
Tsai welcomed the visit by Young, who is the first US senator to travel to the country in the new US congressional session.
She praised him for being one of Taiwan’s strongest supporters in the US Congress by backing Taiwan’s international participation and being a key architect of the CHIPS act.
“Facing authoritarian expansion and post-COVID-19-pandemic economic challenges, like-minded partners need to build a sustainable supply chain for democracy chips. This will help Taiwanese, the US and global economies continue to prosper and develop,” she said.
Tsai also called on Young to advocate for the possible signing of a Taiwan-US agreement on double taxation to create more opportunities for companies from both sides to engage in exchanges.
Young arrived late on Monday as part of a larger trip to the Indo-Pacific region.
During his stay, he was to meet with senior leaders and private-sector representatives to discuss US-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, global supply chains and other significant issues of mutual interest, the American Institute in Taiwan said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by