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The US must manufacture its own chips domestically while cannot rely on the island of Taiwan, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned in a latest interview with CNBC. The US official's remarks have drawn criticism among netizens of the island of Taiwan on Facebook.
"For national security, we must manufacture our own chips domestically. We cannot rely on Taiwan, which is 9,500 miles from the US and only 80 miles from China. 99 percent of leading-edge chips should not be made in Taiwan. This is why we negotiated with South Korea and Japan to expand our chip manufacturing capacity at home," Lutnick said.
Lutnick said the US' CHIPS Act handed out subsidies to trillion-dollar giants like TSMC, and instead of giveaways, the Trump administration aims to turn them into "equity for the American people."
Taiwan-based media outlet Economic Daily News reported on Wednesday by saying Lutnick's remarks are "shocking."
US Treasury Secretary Bessent echoed Lutnick's remark, Economic Daily News reported, citing Bessent's recent interview with CNBC. "I would say that the single point of failure for the global economy is that 99 percent of the advanced chips in the world are made in Taiwan," Bessent said. "And for national security, we have to stop that single point of failure," he said.
Below the post of Economic Daily News on social media platform Facebook, netizens from the island expressed criticism toward the US official's remarks while calling for the island to give up any illusion over the US.
A netizen named "Stan Hung" wrote "Those who lack the ability to create, yet excel at snatching; those who cannot safeguard, only kneel and surrender."
Another netizen named "Will Kuo" wrote, the US is prepared to abandon Taiwan and the island may end up being "meat on the table of the US." Another netizen "Aaron Liu" called for selling chips to the Chinese mainland to disperse risks and stop production in the US.
" The US' officials latest remarks indicate growing sense of insecurity with chip manufacturing. Different from the era of 'friendshoring,' or fostering trade ties with allies in the Biden administration, the Trump administration seems to believe that only chips manufactured in the US or controlled by the US government are safe," Ma Jihua, a veteran telecom industry observer, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Now is the time for the island to abandon illusions that it could court the US by investing in the US, Ma said, stressing only reducing reliance on the US can chipmakers on the island avoid being blackmailed by Washington.
"The US has analyzed which the island of Taiwan is closer geographically - the mainland. Most of the supply chain of chipmakers on the island is in the mainland and their target market is the mainland too. The only choice is to integrate with the chipmaking ecosystem of the mainland if chipmakers in the island hope to achieve greater development," Ma said.
