Taipei to comply with US chip export rules directed at Beijing

10/14/2022 / By Ramon Tomey

Taiwan will comply with new rules on semiconductor chip exports put in place by the U.S., even though the rules from Washington were originally aimed at Beijing.

The Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the sweeping new export controls on Oct. 7, that will cut China off from certain semiconductor chips that are made with U.S. technologies, regardless of whether the chips were manufactured in the United States. The announcement sought to cut off communist China from chips made using American technologies.

A Bloomberg report published on the same day noted that the U.S. “would consider evacuating Taiwan’s highly skilled chip engineers” in case the mainland invades. The report cited people familiar with the Biden administration’s deliberations.

In response, the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said the next day, Oct. 8, that Taiwanese firms would comply with the measures. “Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has long served global customers and attaches great importance to compliance with laws,” it said.

The MOEA added that the international community – including Beijing – should understand that Taiwan’s economy is “heavily intertwined” with that of the world. Instability in the Taiwan Strait would inevitably endanger the security of the Asia-Pacific region including its neighbors Japan and Korea, which are also part of the critical semiconductor supply chains.

The ministry remarked that maintaining peace and security in the strait serves the best interest of all parties.

Taiwanese Economic Affairs Minister Wang Mei-hua told Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun that China heavily depends on Taiwan for its semiconductor imports. Any incident in the Taiwan Strait, she added, will disrupt the supply chain and severely impact the Chinese economy. (Related: Taiwan chip giant warns against global supply devastation if China attacks.)

Wang warned that if Beijing uses Taiwan-made semiconductors in a way that threatens Taipei’s security, the mainland’s exports will be restricted or controlled under international rules and regulations.

Taiwan too precious to lose because of its chip industry

Days before the DOC announced the new export controls, the Taiwanese think tank Economic Democracy Union held a forum on Oct. 5 that looked at the role of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and the geopolitical risks that threaten it. Two of the speakers, Academia Sinica researcher Wu Jieh-min and National Sun Yat-sen University professor Li Pao-wen, pointed out that China is highly dependent on Taiwan’s supply chain.

Citing data from the MOEA’s Bureau of Foreign Trade, Wu revealed that total semiconductor exports from Taiwan to China and Hong Kong was about $68.36 billion in 2021. This accounted for 60.4 percent of the total semiconductors exported worldwide.

Furthermore, Li remarked that Taiwan is currently “an asset rather than a burden” to the U.S. in its rivalry with China for world hegemony. He pointed out that nearly 80 percent of chips in the U.S. come from Taiwan, and that the two countries share deep commercial and economic ties.

If worse comes to worst, however, the possibility of mainland China launching a full-scale invasion against either the U.S. or Taiwan looms. This was one issue discussed by the Health Ranger Mike Adams and the Liberty Man John Moore during the Dec. 13, 2021 episode of the “Health Ranger Report” on Brighteon.TV.

The Natural News and Brighteon.com founder explained: “What a lot of Americans don’t realize is that if China moves against Taiwan [and] they’re successful, then they can shut down or take over Taiwan’s entire semiconductor industry.”

Adams noted that the island nation is the No. 1 supplier of semiconductors to the West. If China successfully takes over Taiwan, shuts down the semiconductor factories and imposes an embargo of exports – the U.S. economy would be crippled.

“They could instantly put the U.S. into severe shortages of medicines, electronics, consumer goods, raw materials, everything imaginable,” he told Moore. “They would literally shut down the entire U.S. economy overnight.”

Head over to CommunistChina.news for more stories like this.

Watch this December 2021 episode of the “Health Ranger Report” on Brighteon.TV as Health Ranger Mike Adams and Liberty Man John Moore discuss China’s possible moves against Taiwan.

This video is from the BrighteonTV channel on Brighteon.com.