Taiwan’s premier calls for chip protection laws to be passed ‘at earliest date’

In February, Taiwan’s cabinet proposed toughening the rules, amid rising concern in Taipei that Beijing, which claims the democratically ruled island as its own territory, is stepping up its economic espionage.

Home to industry giant TSMC and accounting for 92 per cent of the world’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity, Taiwan possesses what mainland China needs – chip expertise in spades.

Chips made by Taiwan are used in everything from fighter jets to mobile phones, and the government has long worried about mainland Chinese efforts to copy that success, including through economic espionage, poaching talent and other methods.

Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang told a cabinet meeting that the “red supply chain” – a reference to the colours of China’s ruling Communist Party – was using various methods to “infiltrate” Taiwan, take its talent and steal its technology, his office said in a statement late on Monday.