The spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Council of State, Chen Binhua, warned that it could make the island a “discarded piece” on the international scenario.
The warning comes after three prominent figures in Taiwan’s semiconductor sector published a joint article entitled, “How the US CHIPS Act Hurts Taiwan” in Project Syndicate, a US-based column.
The report claims that Washington is using that chip legislation to gain control over TSMC’s technologies and undermine the company’s position.
Following that publication, other scholars and people in general have wondered whether authorities from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are sacrificing the semiconductor manufacturing sector to earn US support.
In that regard, Chen Binhua was fretful about the feasible hollowing out of Taiwan’s advantageous industries, the suppression of its core businesses and the erosion of its competitive leverages.
According to official statistics, the semiconductor industry is crucial to Taiwan’s economic development, accounting for approximately 13 percent of its total GDP.
“If Taiwan’s economic and industrial breakthrough loses its autonomy and influence in the global supply chain, how much resilience will Taiwan have left?” he wondered.
The inevitable aftermath for Taiwan would be to move from being a pawn to being a discarded piece,” he underscored.
China’s warning stresses the strategic importance of TSMC and the complex geopolitical dynamics at play in the semiconductor sector, which has become a pivotal point of the competition between the United States and China for technological and economic dominance.
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