Taiwan official proposes to reduce sales of semiconductor chips to China
Jun 21, 2022
Taipei [Taiwan], June 21 : Taiwan officials have proposed to reduce sales of semiconductor chips to China to counter Beijing's ban on Taipei's agricultural and fishery products.
China has successively banned the import of Taiwan's agricultural and fishery products, Radio Free Asia reported.
Deng Zhenzhong, a political member of the Taiwan Executive Yuan who attended the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Geneva has proposed a countermeasure, saying that Taiwan's biggest weapon is to reduce the export of chips to China.
Experts pointed out that this move will impact China's smartphones and electric vehicles, but the focus should be on adjusting the export structure of Taiwan's agricultural and fishery industries to meet the standards for exporting to Europe, America and Japan.
According to reports citing official data, Taiwan dominates the global market for the most advanced chips, an export worth USD 118 billion last year.
China's foreign ministry and state media did not respond to Deng Zhenzhong's statement. However, some Chinese reporters said that the vacated share of the Chinese market will naturally be broken by other countries, and Taiwan will go to a dead end, Radio Free Asia reported.
Recently, Chinese manufacturing companies have been recruiting talents from Taiwan with a salary of 2-2.5 times the average salaries and bonuses offered in Taipei, a new trick to lure the people from the island, according to a report.
Chinese officials are poaching talent in Hsinchu in Taiwan. It has also become the centre of intellectual property theft, which often follows talent recruitment. Over 100 experienced engineers and managers from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) have been transferred to foundries in China in 2019 and 2020.
Overall, more than 3,000 engineers are estimated to have transferred from Taiwan to mainland companies, nearly 10 per cent of Taiwan's semiconductor research and development workforce.
Realizing that China is poaching talent, the authorities are closely monitoring the Beijing companies as the latest crackdown on the firms to protect its chip supremacy.
