Washington, Aug. 8 (CNA) Keith Krach, who became the highest ranking incumbent State Department official to visit Taiwan in 40 years in 2020, will be in Taiwan again starting Wednesday in his capacity as the head of an American tech diplomacy think tank.
Krach, the undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment in the Donald Trump administration, will meet government officials, technology CEOs and academic leaders during his visit, the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue said Tuesday.
The institute said in a statement that Krach’s Aug. 9-12 trip is focused on three primary objectives — strengthening tech security, launching the Taiwan Center for Innovation and Prosperity (TCIP), and expanding Taiwan’s role in the Global Trusted Tech Network.
Krach said in a Twitter post earlier Tuesday that he was on his way to Taiwan for a visit as a tech diplomat to strengthen private sector ties.
“Securing freedom is not all up to governments. PRIVATE SECTOR MATTERS! The ingenuity of American and Taiwanese private sector is a big competitive advantage vs the Chinese Communist model,” he tweeted.
The TCIP at the Krach Institute will “turbocharge U.S.-Taiwan industry and government collaboration, especially in the development of trusted technologies.”
When Krach was last in Taiwan in September 2020, he was a U.S. undersecretary of state for economic affairs, making him the highest level official from the State Department to visit Taiwan in the decades since the U.S. severed diplomatic ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 1979.
Although the main purpose of Krach’s previous visit was to attend a memorial service for late President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), he also met with Taiwan government officials to discuss a 5G clean network, industrial supply chain restructuring, and the Indo-Pacific strategy.
During Krach’s stay in Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) hosted a banquet for him at the official presidential residence, at which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) was also a guest.
Prior to serving as undersecretary of state, Krach had extensive business experience, including co-founding the B2B e-commerce platform Ariba in 1996.
