Talks are in progress with the US over a freeze on foreign aid programs — including military assistance to Taiwan — and proposed sweeping tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors, Representative to the US Alexander Yui (俞大?) said on Sunday.
On Jan. 24, the US Department of State temporarily halted almost all foreign assistance and paused new programs for 90 days to review whether they align with the policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration.
Washington told the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office that the measures were temporary and do not indicate that all funding would be cut, Yui told reporters in Washington’s Chinatown following a Lunar New Year parade.
Photo: CNA
The White House told the office it is not a targeted measure against any particular country, but is intended to gain a comprehensive understanding of whether programs initiated under the administration of former US president Joe Biden align with Trump’s policies, he said.
Asked how long the aid suspension could last, Yui said that “we have a mutual understanding,” but declined to discuss details of the freeze regarding Taiwan’s military aid.
On Monday last week, Trump told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, with the US president again saying that 98 percent of the semiconductor industry has moved to Taiwan.
Communication is ongoing between Taiwan and the US, which have good relations in the chip industry, Yui said, adding that Taiwan is not a competitor to the US, but a reliable partner that can help “make America great again.”
Trump also proposed plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals at the House Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida.
Taiwan’s representative office told the US that Taiwan’s chip industry is just one part of the supply chain that uses US designs and precision instruments before being delivered to companies that commission Taiwan to manufacture the products, Yui said.
For every US$1 earned from semiconductor sales, US companies receive US$0.38, while Taiwanese companies earn US$0.11, he added.
A decade ago, 80 percent of Taiwan’s foreign investment went to China compared with 11 percent today, while 40 percent of current investments are going to the US, proving that Taiwan-US cooperation would continue to strengthen, he said.
Trump hopes to create more investments and job opportunities in the US during his second term, and the US-Taiwan Expedited Double-Tax Relief Act passed last month would increase Taiwanese investment in the US, he said.
Taiwan would continue to prove its usefulness in the artificial intelligence industry among other science and technology industries, he added.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS