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Policy proposal made in speech on US-China relations
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Research group overseen by China’s economic planning agency
Bloomberg News
June 7, 2022, 11:30 AM
GMT+7
A senior Chinese economist
at a government-run research group called on authorities to seize Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. if the US hits China with
sanctions on par with those leveled against Russia.
“If the US and the West
impose destructive sanctions on China like sanctions against Russia, we must
recover Taiwan,” said Chen Wenling, chief economist at the China Center for
International Economic Exchanges. The research group is overseen by the
National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning
agency.
“Especially in the
reconstruction of the industrial chain and supply chain, we must seize TSMC,”
Chen said in a speech last month hosted by the Chongyang Institute for Financial
Studies at Renmin University, which was posted online Tuesday by the nationalistic news website Guancha.
“They are speeding up the
transfer to the US to build six factories there,” she added. “We must not let
all the goals of the transfer be achieved.”
The comments are some of
the most prominent so far showing how Taiwan’s chip industry is seen in Beijing
as a key strategic asset in the intensifying rivalry between the world’s two
largest economies. TSMC is the world’s largest contract manufacturer of
semiconductors, accounting for more than 50% of the global foundry market,
which involves businesses purely making chips for other companies. Its customers
include Apple Inc., which relies on Taiwanese chips for iPhones.
A TSMC representative
declined to comment on Chen’s remarks. Media reports have said TSMC will build
six chip fabs in the US, but the company has announced just one so far. It has
bought more land for possible construction.
It’s unclear how the scenario Chen described would occur,
given the US and other nations only leveled harsh economic sanctions on Russia
after it invaded Ukraine in February. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its
territory that must be brought under control by force if necessary, while the
government in Taipei asserts it’s already a de facto independent nation in need
of wider international recognition.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has sought to achieve tech
self-sufficiency, and tapped economic czar Liu He to shepherd a key initiative
aimed at helping domestic chipmakers overcome U.S. sanctions. Those sanctions,
which emerged during Donald Trump’s presidency, are impeding longer-term
efforts by chipmakers including Huawei
Technologies Co.’s HiSilicon and Semiconductor
Manufacturing International Corp. from migrating toward more advanced
wafer fabrication technologies.
At the same time, President Joe Biden has announced plans to
put $52 billion into domestic semiconductor research, development and
production as part of the administration’s broad China competition bill, which
is still awaiting approval.
— With assistance by Colum Murphy, Debby Wu, and Jing Li
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4563827
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/06/07/world/economist-urges-china-seize-tsmc/
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