The 2025 Taiwan-Nordic Forum convened once again on May 8 in Stockholm, Sweden. Min-Yen Chiang, Deputy Director for Economic Security at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), was invited to join the forum, engaging with scholars and policy experts from Taiwan and Europe on critical issues such as supply chain resilience and geopolitical security.
The event was organized by the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), which formally launched its Taiwan Center last year in Sweden. The center is dedicated to fostering dialogue on Taiwan-related policy issues, offering timely analysis for decision-makers, and aspires to become the leading Taiwan research hub in Europe and the Nordic region.
ISDP Director Niklas Swanström noted that this year’s forum focused on three core themes: supply chain security, total defense strategies, and democratic resilience. He expressed hope that sustained dialogue between Taiwan and Europe would enhance mutual understanding, align shared values and interests, and facilitate the exchange of effective policy practices.
As a public forum, the event attracted dozens of local policy researchers, think tank members, and professionals from political and academic circles. Lively interaction characterized the sessions. Representing the DSET research team, Chiang presented insights from Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, emphasizing the strategic complementarity between Taiwan and Europe in the context of the global semiconductor supply chain. He highlighted that with the European Chips Act mobilizing substantial public resources to enhance supply chain resilience, Taiwanese companies play a vital role in its implementation.
Drawing on a series of open-source intelligence (OSINT) reports published by DSET over the past year, Chiang analyzed the security threats posed by China’s national semiconductor strategy. He underscored that a key priority of the European Chips Act is the expansion of automotive chip capacity and application scenarios. However, as illustrated in the DSET recent policy report The Great Siege: The PRC’s Comprehensive Strategy to Dominate Foundational Chips, China is aggressively leveraging state subsidies to flood the global market with low-cost, mature-node chips and materials, which could severely undermine the effectiveness of Europe’s semiconductor policy. Chiang urged Taiwan and Europe to jointly formulate countermeasures and explore pathways toward building a “non-red supply chain,” grounded in mutual industrial synergy and shared democratic values.
Other featured speakers in the same session included Dr. Da-jung Li, Director of the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies at Tamkang University, and Dr. Fredrik Erixon, Director and Founder of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE). The discussion delved into the implications of a potential Trump 2.0 semiconductor policy and the evolving role of Europe in techno-geopolitical trade relations.
In his concluding remarks, Chiang emphasized the need for Taiwan to deepen cooperation with European partners amid shifting geopolitical dynamics. He called for a stronger commitment to democratic values and encouraged joint exploration of shared interests in the technological supply chain. He also highlighted the adverse impact of the diplomatic constraints imposed on Taiwan and urged European stakeholders to take these challenges into serious consideration when charting future collaboration.
Other participants in various sessions included Karl Lallerstedt, Senior Analyst at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI); Dr. Tzu-yun Su, Director of the Division of Defense Strategy and Resources at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR); Dr. Charlotte Wagnsson, Professor of Political Science at the Swedish Defence University (FHS); Dr. Cho-Hsin Su, Associate Professor of Diplomacy at National Chengchi University; and Dr. Marina Nord, Researcher at the V-Dem Institute, the world’s largest democracy research program.