DSET on Nov. 3 visited the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. to participate in a closed-door roundtable hosted by the Center’s China Program. The discussion brought together Stimson Center China Program Deputy Director Pamela Kennedy and several researchers, while DSET was represented by CEO Dr. Jeremy Chih-Cheng Chang, Deputy Director of Economic Security Min-yen Chiang, and Non-Resident Fellow Chris Chih-Hua Tseng. Kennedy has conducted long-term research on China’s political developments and foreign policy and in recent years has increasingly focused on Taiwan, particularly in the areas of semiconductor supply chains, economic security, and cross-Strait relations.
The meeting focused on the economic security risks associated with AI data centers in Southeast Asia. During the discussion, DSET Non-Resident Fellow Chris Chih-Hua Tseng highlighted that the steady expansion of Chinese foreign direct investment in Malaysia has become a structural feature of China–Malaysia economic cooperation. This trend, Tseng noted, could create pathways for the indirect transfer of U.S. AI compute capacity to Chinese companies. Drawing on DSET’s latest research, Tseng outlined how data centers in Malaysia can be categorized into four types based on the degree of supply-chain control and the potential for creating export control loopholes. These operational models range from fully foreign-owned greenfield facilities with high transparency, to joint ventures with uneven authority distribution, to hybrid cloud arrangements that fall into regulatory gray zones, and finally to large colocation where multiple clients share equipment and infrastructure, making supply-chain verification most difficult. This analytical framework, he argued, offers a useful basis for U.S. policymakers to distinguish economic security risk levels more clearly and tailor supervisory mechanisms accordingly.
Researchers at the Stimson Center affirmed the significance of DSET’s recent work on China’s foundational semiconductor sector, noting that it provides a strong foundation for continued policy dialogue. Both institutions expressed interest in further collaboration, particularly in research related to Southeast Asia and the development of shared data analysis platforms. Deputy Director Chiang emphasized that DSET’s economic security work relies heavily on open-source supply-chain intelligence (OSINT), a methodology that enables both Taiwan and the U.S. to better track real-time industrial developments and improve the quality of economic security decision-making.
