President Lai Ching-te highlights how Taiwan’s democracy and rule of law underpin its vital role in the global chip supply chain, amid increasing US efforts to diversify and secure semiconductor manufacturing outside the island.
Taiwan’s chip industry rests as much on politics as on engineering, President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday, arguing that democracy and the rule of law have helped make the island a dependable supplier to the global technology sector. Speaking at the SEMICON trade show in Taipei, Lai said Taiwan had built a complete semiconductor ecosystem with fast and efficient manufacturing and had won trust by keeping its commitments to international customers.
The remarks came as Taiwan seeks to strengthen its image as a stable partner in a sector increasingly shaped by geopolitics. Taiwan is home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and the main producer of the advanced semiconductors used in artificial intelligence systems. Industry analyses have long placed Taiwan at the centre of the global chip chain, with the island accounting for a dominant share of foundry output and almost all advanced logic production.
Lai’s comments also reflected the pressure Taiwan faces from Washington to reduce the concentration of critical chipmaking on the island. TSMC has already committed to major investment in Arizona, part of a wider push by the United States to rebuild domestic manufacturing and diversify supply. In a video message to the same conference, Jacob Helberg, the U.S. under secretary of state for economic affairs, said chip supply concentration was a vulnerability and argued that Taiwan’s investment in the United States was helping address it.
The broader backdrop is a dispute over how much of the world should depend on a single production hub at a time of trade friction, export controls and intensifying competition in artificial intelligence. Reuters has reported that Taipei wants to present its semiconductor sector not only as technologically unmatched but also as politically trustworthy. Lai said Taiwan would continue working with partners to build a more resilient supply chain able to withstand natural disasters, pandemics and geopolitical shocks.
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