Taiwan: Chip 4 Led by U.S. Discussed Supply Chain Resilience

The U.S. has convened the first meeting of a working group of East Asian countries to discuss ways to strengthen the semiconductor supply chain after a two-year global chip crunch, a Taiwanese official said September 30th. The semiconductor shortage has forced some automakers to halt production, thrusting chip powerhouse Taiwan into the spotlight and making supply chain management a bigger priority for governments around the world.

 Taiwan exchanged views at the first preliminary meeting and hope to discuss ways to cooperate in the future on the supply chain issues recently emerged, Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua told reporters in Taipei. The initial meeting of the working group, known as Chip 4, was also attended by representatives from Korea and Japan.

 The group’s member countries are the world’s largest contract chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, South Korean memory chip giants Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix, as well as major Japanese suppliers of semiconductor materials and equipment. President Tsai Ing-wen told visiting U.S. lawmakers last month that Taiwan is committed to ensuring its partners have a reliable supply of semiconductors or democratic chips, and urged allies to increase cooperation amid the heightened threat from communist China.

 Communist China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory. The government of Taiwan rejects Beijing’s claim to sovereignty. American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. Embassy, hosted a virtual meeting of the U.S.-East Asia Semiconductor Supply Chain Resilience Working Group. The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the country’s top representative in Taiwan attended the meeting on Wednesday.