Small island country holding an axe over South Africa’s neck
The island nation of Taiwan says it is still assessing the possibility of using chip export controls in its diplomatic efforts—a sign it has not completely abandoned a tool that it briefly threatened to deploy against South Africa.
“Of course, we hope not to have to use these measures but if our counterparts harms our interests, we will need to respond,” Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said at a briefing in Taipei on Wednesday.
“This is indeed among the options under assessment, though that does not necessarily mean they will all be implemented.”
When asked later if he was referring to South Africa or other nations as well, Lin avoided clarifying. He also emphasised that Taiwan doesn’t want to weaponise semiconductors.
In September, Taiwan said it would hold off on chip export controls that it had placed on South Africa just two days earlier, indicating it was uncomfortable with using a key tech export as a weapon in diplomatic disputes.
That came after Taipei for the first time unilaterally imposed semiconductor export controls on a country, limiting shipments to South Africa for actions that “undermined our national and public security.”
That measure was the latest twist in a long-running spat over South Africa’s efforts to weaken ties with Taiwan — a key demand of China from its formal partners.
The chip curbs were part of a strategy to increasingly use economic and trade policy for diplomatic goals, with authorities mulling the rollout of similar measures for other unfriendly nations, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
However, officials in Taipei seem to have second thoughts about the approach, possibly over the impact on companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., whose advanced chips are central to the AI boom.
China is one of the markets most exposed to any attempts by Taiwan to tighten chip controls, and it criticized the curbs on South Africa at the time.
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Lin’s remarks on Wednesday.
Taiwan’s spat with South Africa, which cut official ties with self-ruled archipelago almost three decades ago, centers around the Taipei Liaison Office.
Taiwan said South Africa began pressuring it to relocate the office from Pretoria to Johannesburg, the nation’s commercial hub, in 2023, shortly after hosting a BRICS summit attended by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
South Africa later intensified its request as it prepares to host the Group of 20 leaders’ meeting this month, which Xi is expected to attend.
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