TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on Saturday (Oct. 8) denied claims the U.S. will evacuate Taiwanese engineers working in the semiconductor industry, in the event of a full-on Chinese invasion.
The ministry’s press release was a direct response to a Bloomberg article that cited anonymous sources speculating on the U.S. government’s “contingency plans” on China attacking Taiwan.
“The international community, including China, should understand that Taiwan’s economy has become interwoven with the world’s, and China’s, economy. For the entire world, the stability and security of the Taiwan Strait is the best supply chain investment,” wrote the MOEA.
“The U.S. government and Taiwan share the consensus that Taiwan’s security, Taiwan Strait peace, and the Taiwan-U.S. semiconductor industry partnership’s resilience must be preserved,” it added. “The cited statements in today’s media report are merely the viewpoints of a few commentators, not the U.S. government’s opinion.”
The ministry cited U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken as saying, “explicitly,” that were anything to happen to Taiwan, the effects it would have on the global economy would be “devastating.” It added that per a Boston Consulting Group report from 2021, for the world’s main semiconductor players to build self-sustaining supply chains, semiconductor prices would soar by 35-65% and cause electronic prices to rise as well.
Considering the delicate and complex procedures of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and the fact the company works with nearly 400 suppliers, the MOEA wrote that “it is almost impossible to try to copy the well-established infrastructure of TSMC or other semiconductor companies elsewhere, even if one spends a fortune.”
The ministry added that as Taiwan’s neighbors, Japan and South Korea, are also integral parts of the semiconductor supply chain, instability across the Taiwan Strait will affect the entire Asia-Pacific region. China, which imports generous amounts of semiconductors from Taiwan, will suffer as well.