China says Taiwan seeks to give away chip industry to US
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China said Taiwan is seeking to leverage its semiconductor industry to seek political support from Washington.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING - China said on Feb 26 that Taiwan was seeking to give away the island’s semiconductor industry to the US as a “souvenir” and leverage it to seek political support from Washington.
The US media has said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to companies such as Apple and Nvidia, has been in talks for a stake in Intel.
Neither TSMC nor Intel has confirmed the reports and Taiwan’s government says it has not received information about any overseas investment application from TSMC.
US President Donald Trump has criticised Taiwan for taking away American semiconductor business, saying he wants the industry to manufacture more in the US.
Speaking at a regular news conference in Beijing, Ms Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said without offering evidence that people in Taiwan were concerned TSMC could become “United States Semiconductor Manufacturing Co”.
“In order to seek selfish gain, the Democratic Progressive Party authorities have freely made demands from external forces, using Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and powerful companies to get a foot in the door to relying on foreign countries to seek independence, and even given them away as souvenirs,” Ms Zhu said, referring to Taiwan’s ruling party.
While China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei, Beijing has no say in foreign investment approval decisions by Taipei.
Ms Zhu said Taiwan was trying to “sell out” Taiwanese companies.
“This sort of shameless selling out of Taiwan is in actuality pandering to the United States,” she said.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement that TSMC was an “important Taiwanese company”.
“In response to the challenges posed by Trump’s new policies towards our semiconductor industry and TSMC, our government will work closely with industry to maintain Taiwan’s leading position in the field of advanced technology,” it said, without elaborating.
TSMC did not respond to a request for comment.
The US is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, though it does not formally recognise the island’s government.
REUTERS
