The Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) hosted the 2026 forum, “National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience,” on June 6, bringing together former government officials, industry leaders, and think tank representatives from Taiwan, the United States, Japan, and Ukraine. The forum focused on four key areas — semiconductors, AI, energy security, and drone supply chains — exploring how democratic partners can deepen technological cooperation and strengthen global supply chain resilience. The event brought together nearly 600 representatives from the government, industry, and academia for dialogue and exchange.
The forum featured opening remarks by Yuh-Jye Lee, Senior Advisor of the National Security Council of Taiwan; Faa-Jeng Lin, Deputy Minister of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC); and Raymond Greene, Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, also delivered remarks via a pre-recorded video message.
In his opening remarks, Advisor Lee noted that DSET’s annual forum has entered its third year and has become an important platform for Taiwan and its democratic partners to engage in dialogue on technology and geopolitical cooperation. He emphasized that the forum’s discussions closely align with Taiwan’s policy priorities, including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, non-Red supply chains for drones, and energy resilience strategies informed by both domestic and international wargaming exercises and real-world operational experiences.
Deputy Minister Lin stated that the world is entering a new era of technological transformation driven by artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, silicon photonics, quantum technologies, AI robotics, and autonomous unmanned systems. He emphasized that technology is no longer merely a source of industrial competitiveness, but a key pillar of national security, democratic governance, and international cooperation. With its world-class semiconductor industry, comprehensive supply chains, and open democratic society, Taiwan is not only a critical player in the global technology ecosystem but also a strategic partner in shaping the future of technological development.
AIT Director Raymond Greene expressed his appreciation to DSET for hosting the forum. He noted that Taiwan became the United States’ fourth-largest trading partner last year, and as the importance of supply chain security continues to grow, the United States and Taiwan are deepening cooperation in emerging technology fields. He emphasized that the United States is committed to maintaining its leadership in AI through accelerating innovation, building critical infrastructure, and strengthening cooperation. Taiwan plays a central role in key areas including semiconductors, energy, data infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing. Through close collaboration, the United States and Taiwan will work together to ensure that the future of AI is secure, resilient, and built on shared prosperity.
Director Greene also noted that highly concentrated markets for critical minerals and rare earths have become tools for political coercion and supply chain disruption. The United States is working with allies and partners, including Taiwan, to establish diversified, secure, and reliable sources of supply. In addition, as a major global energy exporter, the United States is prepared to deepen energy cooperation with Taiwan and provide stable and reliable energy resources to support Taiwan’s economic growth and overall economic security. Greene emphasized that the United States has made clear its opposition to any actions that seek to change the status quo, and noted that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan’s passage of the special defense budget represents the first step in strengthening Taiwan’s defense capabilities. He expressed hope that Taiwan will continue investing in military deterrence and societal resilience, particularly in emerging technology areas such as unmanned systems.
Chairman John Moolenaar pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party has increased its provocations, incursions, and coercive actions against Taiwan and the rest of the world. He expressed particular concern that Chinese leader Xi Jinping has instructed the People’s Liberation Army to be capable of conducting military operations against Taiwan by 2027, while the CCP continues to expand gray-zone activities,increasing cyber and electronic warfare, and even training for potential blockade scenarios.
Facing increasingly complex security challenges, Moolenaar recognized Taiwan’s resilience under pressure and emphasized that Taiwan’s efforts to strengthen its own security serve as an important foundation for the continued development of the U.S.-Taiwan relations. He noted that Taiwan is not only an important trading partner of the United States, but also a critical node in advanced manufacturing and semiconductor supply chains. Deepening U.S.-Taiwan cooperation would not only support U.S. reindustrialization efforts, but also enhance global supply chain resilience and contribute to maintaining stability across the Indo-Pacific region.
Semiconductor Supply Chain Resilience Dialogue: The Next Steps for Taiwan-US Semiconductor Supply Chain Cooperation
The first session, “Semiconductor Supply Chain Resilience Dialogue: The Next Steps for Taiwan-US Semiconductor Supply Chain Cooperation,” was moderated by Jeremy Chih-Cheng Chang, CEO and director of the Economic Security Research Program at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET). The session featured five speakers: Chris Miller, author of Chip War; Tarun Chhabra, Director of National Security Policy at Anthropic, an AI startup; David Feith, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute; Chris McGuire, Senior Fellow for China and Emerging Technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR); and Terry Tsao, President of SEMI Taiwan. They discussed the future challenges and opportunities for U.S.-Taiwan cooperation in the AI era, examining U.S.-China technological competition and supply chain risks.
Chris Miller discussed China’s ambitions for self-reliance and the U.S.-Taiwan response strategies, pointing out differences in U.S. and Chinese AI development strategies, emphasizing U.S. pursuit of AGI while China’s AI development focuses on industrial development across the “traditional” economy. He also refuted the myth that the U.S. is “hollowing out” Taiwan, reiterating the extremely strong technological and economic ties between the U.S. and Taiwan.
Tarun Chhabra stated that in the face of the risk of chip smuggling and illicit model distillation, the United States and Taiwan must establish a systematic cooperation mechanism to strengthen software supply chain management and national defense. David Feith emphasized that the U.S. strategy towards China has bipartisan consensus, and Taiwan, as an irreplaceable AI hardware center, should ensure investment in defense and critical manufacturing, focusing on addressing the core threats from China.
Chris McGuire anticipates that the U.S. will push for new export control legislation to protect national security assets such as cutting-edge chips, calling for the establishment of absolute red lines and hoping that Taiwan’s relevant regulations will align with those of the U.S. Terry Tsao, from an industry perspective, pointed out that the globalization of semiconductor manufacturing in the United States aims to expand business while keeping R&D roots in Taiwan. Taiwan can absolutely balance global efficiency and security, continuously deepening the close and prosperous ecosystem between the two sides.
AI Supply Chain Resilience Dialogue: Global Competition from Models and Security to Intelligent Robotics Applications
The second session was moderated by Dr. Kai-Shen Huang, director of the Democratic Governance Program at DSET, and covered AI supply chain resilience. Speakers included Dean Ball, Senior Fellow, Foundation for American Innovation (FAI); Matt Cronin, Senior National Security Advisor, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z); Martijn Rasser, Vice President for Technology Leadership, Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP); Jason Fiorillo, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, Boston Dynamics; and Michael Robbins, President & CEO, Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). The discussion commenced in three parts: AI policy frameworks, AI diffusion, and “embodied AI.”
On AI policy, Mr. Dean Ball articulated the AI Action Plan, arguing that the U.S. is actively pursuing a vision of innovating in both open and closed weight models. He also discussed trends in the adoption of closed weight models by middle powers, contending that the United States needs to focus its efforts on exporting its AI stack globally—a goal that involves American allies adopting a common AI ecosystem. Matt Cronin introduced a three-pronged strategy for the United States and its allies and partners to win the AI race against China: maintaining a sizable lead in frontier AI, facilitating model diffusion, and incentivizing human flourishing. He opined that all are interconnected and necessary components for American and allied victory at different layers of the AI stack.
On AI diffusion, Martjin Rasser contended that diffusion is the key race between the United States and China. He identified several dimensions of the diffusion race and alliance-building frameworks like Pax Silica. He also implored the United States to pursue regulatory predictability as a vehicle for effective coordination with European and East Asian allies and partners.
On embodied AI, Jason Fiorillo explained that countries will increasingly rely on intelligent robotics to ameliorate labor shortfalls caused by declining birthrates. He articulated Boston Dynamics’ mission to incorporate AI into robotics, sustain high customer satisfaction and demand, and maintain trust and security along the robotics supply chain.
Michael Robbins argued that the robotics industry highlights a key convergence between hardware and AI, noting that while the United States leads in the deployment of software, it does not in hardware. He conveyed the importance of alliances and partnerships in robotics, arguing that the United States is strongest when it works with likeminded countries—“America First” should not mean “America Only.” The Drone Dominance Program and cooperation with Taiwanese firms is a strong positive example. On Taiwan’s progress, Robbins expressed strong support for Taiwan’s Supplemental Defense Budget and spending more on asymmetric capabilities.
Taiwan Energy Resilience Dialogue: Examining U.S.-Japan-Taiwan Energy Security Cooperation through Taiwan Strait Wargames and the Ukraine Experience
The third session was moderated by Dr. Tsaiying Lu, the director of Energy Security and Climate Resilience Program, DSET, and examined Taiwan’s energy security and resilience under potential conflict and blockade scenarios. Drawing on experiences from Taiwan, Japan, Ukraine, and the United States, speakers emphasized that modern warfare increasingly targets energy systems, transportation networks, and critical infrastructure.
Dr. Lu argued that China’s military exercises around Taiwan since 2022 may serve as rehearsals for future blockade scenarios. While public attention often focuses on Taiwan’s limited liquefied natural gas (LNG) stockpiles, she stressed that resilience depends on emergency response capabilities, including the dispatch flexibility of existing coal-fired generators and renewable energy units, as well as demand control measures. She also highlighted the global consequences of disruptions in the Taiwan Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
Mark Cancian, Senior Adviser in the Defense and Security Department at CSIS, presented findings from his team’s report, Lights Out, which via war games simulated Chinese blockades of Taiwan. The results showed that Taiwan could maintain normal electricity generation initially, but energy shortages would emerge as fuel reserves declined. He emphasized the importance of maritime resilience, energy storage, and advance planning to mitigate the effects of a prolonged blockade.
Tomohisa Takei, Senior Fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, noted that Taiwan and Japan share vulnerabilities as island economies dependent on imported energy and maritime trade. His simulations highlighted the need to protect sea lines of communication, strengthen industrial mobilization, and deepen cooperation with allies.
Drawing on Ukraine’s experience, Anton Antonenko, Vice President and Co-Founder of Dixi Group, described energy warfare as a “multi-crisis” that affects electricity, communications, transportation, and water systems simultaneously. He advocated for distributed generation, flexible capacity, and resilient grid design to reduce dependence on centralized infrastructure.
Taiwan Power Company (TPC) Vice President Wu Chin-Chung outlined Taiwan’s efforts to strengthen resilience through increasing capacity of renewable energy, energy storage, microgrids, emergency backup generation, and enhancing measures for grid systems and cybersecurity. In the discussion, Vice President Wu noted that TPC faces thousands of cyberattacks daily and TPC has been working on deploying layered defenses, and monitoring risks through regular exercises and international cooperation. Antonenko added that substations are often primary targets during conflict, underscoring the importance of rapid repair capabilities and distributed energy systems.
Overall, the session highlighted that resilience must be built well before a crisis through long-term investment, coordination, and preparedness.
Drone Supply Chain Resilience Dialogue: Taiwan–U.S.–Ukraine Cooperation on Drone Supply Chains
The Drone Panel was moderated by Cathy Fang, Policy Analyst at DSET. The panel featured Gene Su, General Manager of Thunder Tiger Technology; Alexander Chang, East Asia Director at Anduril Industries; Andrii Ordynovych, Director of Strategic Development at the Free Ukraine Foundation and former Defense Attaché at the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States; Molly Campbell, Research Assistant with the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS); and Artur Savchii, Analyst at the Snake Island Institute.
Cathy Fang reviewed DSET’s recent Ukraine-Taiwan and Europe-Taiwan UAV cooperation drone reports. She noted that Taiwan’s exports grew to around 122,000 units in 2025, with Quarter 1 of 2026 already exceeding that at 139,000 units. These are primarily sent to Ukraine via Poland and the Czech Republic. Still, domestic scaling is limited by lack of demand. She added that a six-year special budget for 200,000 drones had been cut in the Legislative Yuan, leaving industry and international partners uncertain about firm orders.
Gene Su, President at Thunder Tiger, remarked, that “In terms of supply chain, they have been investing for the past 10 years from modules to everything beyond”. He shared innovations that address bottlenecks, describing an aluminum-stamping technique adapted from the automotive industry that overcomes the slower, layer-by-layer limits of composite manufacturing.
Alexander Chang, Managing Director for East Asia at Anduril Industries, outlined its recent cooperation initiatives with Taiwan. He stated that the company had added 15 local suppliers and increased its direct sourcing 15 fold in the past year, and that its Lattice command-and-control platform was being integrated with Taiwan’s existing systems, with the aim of making Taiwan so costly to invade that China would not attempt it.
Andrii Ordynovych, the Director for Strategic Support and Development at the Ukrainian Freedom Fund and former Attaché to the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States, described Ukraine’s experience of asymmetric warfare. He emphasized that the use of low-cost interceptors against enemy drones has made the quantity of systems extremely important for a prolonged defence.
Molly Campbell, research assistant at the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), summarized her research on building a drone based asymmetric strategy, coined ‘Hellscape for Taiwan’. She warned of overreliance on US systems to fill 100% of Taiwan’s industrial UAV gaps.
Artur Savichii, an analyst at the Ukrainian think tank Snake Island Institute, noted the complementary potential cooperation between Taiwan and Ukraine, specifically for critical components like microelectronics. In return, he noted that Ukraine could offer battlefield-proven designs, combat-driven demand, and strategic tactics.
