Taiwan has just escalated its role in the global tech standoff with China, dealing a serious blow to two of Beijing’s most critical tech players, Huawei and SMIC. Both companies have already felt the sting of U.S. sanctions, but now they’re facing a new barrier: Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has added them to its high-tech export control entity list.
This development is more than just bureaucratic red tape. It effectively places Taiwan’s strategic semiconductor exports under scrutiny and signals a tighter alignment with U.S. efforts to curb China’s access to advanced chip technologies.
The decision by Taiwan’s Commerce Ministry to blacklist Huawei and SMIC underscores the island nation’s commitment to safeguarding its high-tech capabilities from potential misuse by adversarial entities. While not unexpected, the move carries significant weight. From now on, any Taiwanese company exporting advanced tech components to these firms must first obtain an official export license.
This shift comes hot on the heels of recent revelations about Huawei’s covert maneuver to bypass export controls. Reports indicate that Huawei used shell companies to dupe TSMC into producing two million AI chiplets, key parts of its Ascend 910-series processors, despite existing sanctions. While TSMC claimed ignorance, it faced heavy penalties for the oversight. The updated entity list may be a direct consequence of this breach.
“Stricter government controls should prevent similar mistakes in the future,” the article notes, hinting at behind-the-scenes political pressure that likely played a role in Taiwan’s decision.
With TSMC at the heart of Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” the implications go far beyond a single company. Other major semiconductor players, including UMC, ASE, SPIL, and Nanya, will also need to comply with these new export restrictions. The result? A wide-reaching slowdown in China’s ability to source essential chipmaking components from across the strait.
What stands out most is how Huawei and SMIC are now listed alongside entities like the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and organizations from countries like North Korea, Iran, and Russia. It’s a bold diplomatic signal, showing just how seriously Taiwan views the threat posed by the misuse of its technology.
Neither Huawei nor SMIC has publicly commented on their new blacklist status, and Taiwan’s Economy Ministry has also stayed silent, according to reports from Bloomberg and Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA).
This isn’t Taiwan’s first foray into tech trade control. In November, the U.S. reportedly requested that TSMC halt shipments of certain chips to Chinese customers. That request likely helped set the stage for the current crackdown.
