SCRUTINY:
Calls have been made for a probe into four Taiwanese tech firms for possible technology leakage to a Chinese chipmaking plant backed by Huawei
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By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporter, with Bloomberg
Taiwan is reportedly to publish a list of key technologies it wants to protect from China’s reach, Nikkei Asia reported yesterday, citing National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄).
The report comes as the US is rumored to be planning to expand its ban on chip exports to China this month and the EU this week published a list of key technologies crucial to the bloc’s economic security.
“Before the end of the year, the National Science and Technology Council will announce what are considered core technologies that need to be protected,” Nikkei Asia quoted Koo as saying.
Photo: Chen Yun, Taipei Times
It is expected to cover industries including semiconductors, agriculture, aerospace, and information and communications technology, the report said.
In addition to technology transfers, Taipei would also focus on issues related to investments, personnel and operations in those industries, it added.
“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 design in Taiwan,” Koo was quoted as saying.
Taiwan last year enacted amendments to the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), imposing harsher punishments for economic espionage and technology theft.
The Investment Commission also revised the Regulations for Permission on Investment or Technology Cooperation in the Mainland Area (在大陸地區從事投資或技術合作許可辦法), requiring Taiwanese firms to obtain approval if they plan to sell their local assets, factories or transfer their equities in China to avoid the risk of technology leakage.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has pledged to investigate if Taiwanese firms helping Huawei Technologies Co (華為) with chipmaking plants in China have breached US sanctions against the Chinese tech giant, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said on Wednesday.
Wang was responding to a request by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee that followed a Bloomberg News report this week identifying four firms working on chip fabs backed by Huawei in China.
Lai asked for a preliminary report on the probe within a month.
The Central News Agency also cited an unidentified ministry official saying its investment department would look into whether the firms are conducting their businesses in China within the scope of applications approved by Taipei.
The firms include chip material reseller Topco Scientific Co (崇越), clean room equipment supplier L&K Engineering Co (亞翔), construction specialist United Integrated Services Co (漢唐) and chemical supply system provider Cica-Huntek Chemical Technology Taiwan Co (矽科宏晟), Bloomberg News reported.
Wang told lawmakers that the four companies had helped Huawei with “wastewater and environmental protection equipment” for its factories, and not with sensitive technologies that could impact national security.
The Bloomberg report comes after Huawei unveiled a smartphone in late August with an advanced made-in-China chip, spurring alarm in Washington and calls to completely cut off Huawei and its Shanghai-based chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯).
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told a US Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday that reports of a chip breakthrough by Huawei are “incredibly disturbing” and emphasized that her department needs more ways to enforce its export-control regimen.
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