Equating economic security to national security, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research associate research fellow Roy Lee (李淳) yesterday said Taiwan needs to strengthen its economic security protections, with core strategies including maintaining competitiveness, economic autonomy and economic resilience.
Lee, former representative to the EU, made the remarks at the 14th Global Taiwan National Affairs Symposium in Taipei yesterday.
Amid geopolitical tensions and policy competition, the international economic order has reached a critical crossroads, he said.
Photo: CNA
One possible direction is a “high-integration” path, in which like-minded countries form tighter cooperative blocs, he said. The other is a “low-integration” path, marked by a clear retreat from globalization, as supply chains shift toward shorter, more localized, or friend-shored models, with security concerns increasingly taking precedence over efficiency.
In this context, Lee said Taiwan must bolster its economic security, focusing on three key pillars: maintaining competitiveness, economic autonomy and economic resilience.
According to Li, Taiwan faces several critical challenges in economic security, including the need to improve situational awareness, enhance analytical capabilities, establish better policy coordination, address market failures and strengthen international cooperation.
Writer Wang Hao (汪浩) at the same event said that state normalization is not just about legal identity; it requires the “de-risking” of survival resilience.
He said that four key areas should be deeply fortified: Upgrading the semiconductor “silicon shield” and industry chain resilience, digital finance and capital defense, energy autonomy and decentralized power supply, and communications and hardening infrastructure.
Kuma Academy cofounder Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) said Taiwan boasts strategic advantages, including its “silicon shield” and strong ICT integration capabilities.
However, it faces several vulnerabilities: heavy reliance on energy imports, key infrastructure threatened by gray-zone warfare and an asymmetric economic dependence on China, he said, adding that outflow of talent and technology poses a long-term threat to Taiwan’s technological leadership.
He proposed the “Taiwan+1” strategy, which aims to integrate into trusted supply chains with democratic allies and build mechanisms to counter economic coercion, mitigating political risks tied to reliance on a single market.
The strategy includes developing microgrids and low-orbit satellite networks for communication backup and establishing dynamic reserve management systems for critical supplies such as natural gas and industrial raw materials, he said.
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