Taiwan President Lai Ching-tey inaugurated the COMPUTEX technology trade fair in Taipei on Tuesday, saying the island’s maintenance of the political status quo is the most responsible approach to securing global supply chains.
As the home of the world’s largest contract chip maker, TSMC, Taiwan is a major equipment supplier to companies including Nvidia and Apple.
But its political status is a constant source of friction, given that China claims the islands should be part of its territory. An uneasy standoff has persisted for decades in which Beijing won’t give up its claim to Taiwan, or allow others to recognize the island nation diplomatically, but also won’t follow through on its threats to try to seize the territory.
What did President Lai say at the inauguration ceremony?
Lai told executives from various tech giants gathered at the Taipei World Trade Center that his government and the sector are growing in importance to their industry.
“As the world’s need for AI grows, so does Taiwan’s need for AI that is stable, reliable and capable of taking responsibility,” Lai said.
“The government will firmly safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and is committed to maintaining the status quo,” he said, referring to the narrow strip of sea separating Taiwan and mainland China.
Nvidia’s Huang calls Taiwan ‘the center of the ecosystem’
Large language models and machine learning tools – commonly referred to with the catch-all term AI – are relied upon by high-end chip and semiconductor manufacturers.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was among the other speakers on the opening day, a week after the chip company, with its stratospheric nominal value by market capitalization, announced plans to invest about $150 billion (about €129 billion) a year in Taiwan.
“Taiwan is incredible in manufacturing, especially technology manufacturing. It’s the center of the ecosystem,” Huang said.
The situation in Taiwan was the focus of US President Donald Trump’s recent visit to China for talks with his counterpart Xi Jinping.
During that visit, Trump said the US was blocking a new tranche of military aid to Taiwan – also drawing attention in the interview to complain about how Taiwan “stole” the chip industry from the US.
Like Germany and most countries in the world, America also takes a positive stance on Taiwan. On the one hand, it adheres to the “one China” policy sought by Beijing, only formally recognizing one Chinese state. On the other hand, it is Taiwan’s most important supporter and security guarantor as well as a major trading partner.
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Edited by: Shawn Sinico