With eye on China, Taiwan to boost protection for crucial tech

TAIPEI: Taiwan is set to announce a list of technologies this year that it wants to protect from the reach of China, reported Nikkei Asia citing a top Taiwanese official.

Wellington Koo, Secretary-General of Taiwan’s National Security Council said, “Before the end of the year, the National Science and Technology Council will announce what are considered core technologies that need to be protected.”

Koo further noted that the aim is to prevent China from acquiring crucial tech.

The security chief further said that Taiwan is also working to prevent their semiconductor products and technologies from being used by China, reported Nikkei Asia.

“Having this country’s core technology exported to China isn’t the only area that we’re scrutinizing from a national security angle. We’re working to prevent our semiconductor products and technologies from being used by China for defense or military purposes,” the security chief said.

“The new policy will elevate critical technology in supply chain and semiconductors to a national security level, enabling closer scrutiny. The aim is to prevent efforts to acquire crucial tech by China, which is targeting upstream IC (integrated circuits) design in Taiwan,” Koo said.

Moreover, the policy will deal with investments, manpower, operations and technology transfer in various domains, Nikkei Asia reported.

“The policy will define national core technologies and cover industries including semiconductors, agriculture, aerospace and ICT (information and communication technology),” Koo said. “It will deal with investments, manpower, operations and technology transfer in these areas.”

For decades now, Beijing has sought to block the sale of military-related technology and weapons from other countries to Taiwan.

Additionally, Taiwan expressed concerns held by the US, Japan and other governments about China’s push for advanced technologies.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, in a move that follows a US policy restricting China’s ability to access advanced technologies, the European Commission published a list of key technologies that pose a threat to the bloc’s economic security, according to Nikkei Asia.

Adding to the recent announcement, the US also made a similar move earlier in August.

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order authorizing the treasury secretary to limit or prohibit American investments in Chinese companies involved in semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and artificial intelligence systems.

Koo added, “Since the US-China trade war, Taiwan has coordinated more with the international community and placed more emphasis on supply chain security. The same could be said for the Netherlands and Japan. But even before the trade war, we already had the Cross-Strait Act and were closely monitoring links and engagements in the tech sector.”

He further said that something that separates Taiwan from other places is that the island passed the Cross-Strait Act to regulate its relations with China in 1992.

The law puts close scrutiny on investments and proposed technology transfer between China and Taiwan, and empowers the Taiwanese government to review and approve or reject such proposals, reported Nikkei Asia. (ANI)

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