Playing with Fire in Cross-Strait Relations, the Tsai Gov’t Will Probably Become a Foe of the Electronics Industry

 Playing with Fire in Cross-Strait Relations, the Tsai Gov’t Will Probably Become a Foe of the Electronics Industry

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

February 25, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

In the story that the US wanted to coalesce with allied forces in shutting out with all efforts China Huawei’s 5G network equipment there appeared a momentous turn and twist. The UK National Cyber ​​Security Center’s top executive indicated in a cross-national conference that "there exists no espionage activity" in Huawei’s products and that their “risks can be controlled and managed” in its network security; he went on to say that Huawei would also, within one year, collaborate to resolve related misgivings; therefore, Huawei would not be excluded from the UK market.

The German Interior Ministry earlier in an exclusive media interview, had already expressed views similar to those of the UK, believing that Germany had no laws that could exclude Huawei, saying that Germany would even amend laws to allow firms that posed potential risks to provide equipment. Moreover, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, a couple of days ago also revised the views expressed by the Communications Security Bureau last November, taking a new stance, saying that New Zealand had not closed its doors to Huawei 5G, as New Zealand was in the process of studying how to handle risks, and it would make an independent decision. The announcement of the UK could impact the decision-making of many countries in the West, becoming a historic turning point global in nature. The more important development was the latest remarks by US President Trump on Twitter. He tweeted that the US urgently needed 5G network technology, and that US industries should accelerate their efforts to catch up, but the US must win through competition, rather than shutting out more advanced technologies.

What is interesting is media reported in the latter part of last January that the Information-Communications Security Department under the Cabinet, for information-communications security, was in the process of gathering data from various Ministries and would announce in March a ban on Mainland China products, with the initial list including products of such firms as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Hikvision, Dahua Technology.

We want to urge the government that without any definitive evidence, and without knowing the veracity of the US actions, the comprehensive and not absolutely necessary overly radical approach may constitute a new type of trade barriers based on the pretext of "national security" following Trump, becoming an unwise action engaged in “trade safeguards" for Taiwan’s firms; this may violate WTO norms, and it will also impact cross-Strait relations. It will not only collapse the atmospherics of cross-Strait reconciliation achieved during the era of the Ma government, for which spent a lot of energy and efforts cultivating, but probably will also place in a high degree of risk the future of the only internationally competitive electronics industry of Taiwan. Especially after President Trump’s tweets, as well as the UK’s expressed stance, it is worthwhile to once again consider with prudence and caution the pros and cons; if the stance is overly excessive and meets with countermeasures, either in the open or hidden, from the other side of the Strait, then the Tsai government will probably be the moving force turning Taiwan’s electronics industry from prosperity to decline. Of course, we would not be happy to see this development.

How to handle cross-Strait relations and economic development, letting a zero-sum game turn into a win-win situation, is seriously testing the wisdom of the DPP authorities; with a slight misstep, Taiwan's high-tech industry and the entire economy will both pay a heavy price.

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