Zhu Fenglian Photo: Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council

TheMK sport US practice of unilateralism and trade protectionism proves once again that the US will always put its interests first. Facts have proven that the more the DPP authorities rely on the US, the deeper the harm to the Taiwan island, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Zhu made the remarks in response to US President Donald Trump's recent remarks that he intended to impose tariffs on Taiwan island to bring chip manufacturing back to the US, arguing that about 98 percent of the chip business has gone to Taiwan and he wanted it to come back. The DPP authorities stated they would introduce four countermeasures to enhance Taiwan-US industrial cooperation. 

Zhu noted that the so-called "countermeasures" are nothing but selling out Taiwan to the US, which will only jeopardize the foundation of Taiwan's industrial development and sacrifice the interests and well-being of the people of Taiwan.

Trump wants to tax imported semiconductors and dismantle an incentive program under which Washington agreed to subsidize Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC)'s pledged $65 billion investment in US production capacity with grants worth $6.6 billion. "In the very near future, we're going to be placing tariffs on foreign production of computer chips . . . to return production of these essential goods to the [US]," Trump told House Republicans on January 27, the Financial Times reported. 

Trump said that foreign chipmakers "didn't need money, they needed an incentive, and the incentive is going to be, they're not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even 100 percent tax," according to the report from the Financial Times. 

Trump's call for chip tariffs aims to force TSMC to boost its advanced production in the US, as TSMC has long been targeted by the US, Ma Jihua, a veteran telecom industry observer, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

However, DPP authorities have not leveraged America's dependence on TSMC for the island's benefits, instead aligning with US policies, potentially risking harm to the island's own semiconductor industry, Ma noted.

Semiconductors and chips are major supporting sectors for Taiwan's economy and shifting or moving them will result in obstacles for the region's sustained development, especially as the sectors have also driven the local development of other related fields, Tang Yonghong, a professor at the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Tang noted that when making decisions, the DPP authorities gave more weight to political factors and chose to follow the US approach against the Chinese mainland, at the expense of the island's economic development and people's livelihoods.

Also on Wednesday, TSMC released the resolutions for its board of directors meeting for the first quarter, as the board approved seven resolutions including capital appropriations of approximately $17.1 billion for purposes such as the installation and upgrading of advanced technology capacity and the installation and upgrading of advanced packaging, mature and/or specialty technology capacity. 

However, the resolutions did not include measures regarding the tariffs or specific deployments targeting the US. 

The board meeting was reportedly held at TSMC's Arizona plant, and it was the first board meeting in the US since the launch of the company 37 years ago, Taiwan-based news outlet udn.com. reported on Monday. 

Ma said tariffs cannot be the right solution. "The development of today's chip industry is the result of the joint efforts of globalization, not unilateral moves by any single government," Ma said, warning that tariffs or any politically motivated intervention could disrupt the global semiconductor supply chain.

Zhu said in December 2024 at a press briefing that TSMC has become the DPP's "pledge of allegiance" to curry favor with the US. If the DPP authorities persist in the unabated selling out of Taiwan, the competitive edge of Taiwan's related industries will inevitably be eroded, Zhu said, responding to inquiries regarding reports that the US has requested TSMC to relocate its advanced processes to the US.