The Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF), along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hosted the inaugural NSP+ Think Tank Summit on October 8. The summit sought to extend the commitment of Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy and bring together prominent think tanks in the Indo-Pacific as a key mechanism of regional engagement. Cynthia Kiang, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs; Audrey Tang, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, Chairman at TAEF, delivered opening remarks at the summit. DSET CEO Jeremy Chih-Cheng Chang was invited to speak at the session titled, “Non-Red Supply Chain: Enhancing Indo-Pacific Connectivity Beyond Authoritarian Dependencies,” in alignment with Taiwan’s proposed Global Democratic Semiconductor Supply Chain Partnership Initiative.
Attended by a network of over 23 Indo-Pacific leading think tanks and nonprofit organizations as well as representatives from the government, industry, academia, and media, the NSP+ Think Tank Summit focused on “Prospects for a Resilient Indo-Pacific Policy,” discussing areas including security resilience, democratic value chains, derisking supply chains, and people-to-people exchange and cooperation.
The third panel session, “Non-Red Supply Chain: Enhancing Indo-Pacific Connectivity Beyond Authoritarian Dependencies,” addressed how like-minded partners can derisk supply chains from China. The session also explored how Taiwan can reinforce its advantages in key technologies to increase supply chain regionalization.
Dr. Chih-Cheng Chang of DSET joined the panel alongside moderator Dr. Hsien-Ming Lien, President of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) and Vice President of DSET; Harsh V. Pant, Vice President of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF); Andrew Yeh, Executive Director at the China Strategic Risk Institute (CSRI); Yujen Kuo, Vice President at the Institute for National Policy Research (INPR); and Marcin Jerzewski, Head of Taiwan Office at the European Values Center for Security Policy.
Dr. Chang discussed the opportunities and challenges of building non-red supply chains. Amidst the backdrop of the “China Shock 2.0” in key technology industries, Dr. Chang shared how Taiwan can maintain a competitive edge over Chinese firms in emerging sectors. He said that a successful Taiwan economic resilience strategy must involve the three prongs of “niche, scale, and regulation.” Taiwan should focus on building strength in certain niche industries with higher barriers to entry, thereby reducing the risk of China dominating those industries. Additionally, Taiwan should leverage its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) strengths to help clients scale up their capacity. Finally, especially for dual-use technologies like drones, regulations like export controls and other trade measures should protect the development of the domestic industry and build non-red resilient supply chains.
