Charlotte Chiu Yu-Ning, Policy Analyst at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), presented her research at the Indo-Pacific Crossroads: Canada, Taiwan and Regional Partners in Dialogue on Security, held at the Liang Kuo Shu International Conference Hall, College of Social Sciences, National Taiwan University. Her presentation examined the architecture of economic security and collective response mechanisms in the context of globally integrated, technology-intensive supply chains.
The forum was co-organized by the Center for China Studies at National Taiwan University, the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, the University of Ottawa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei. It brought together scholars and policy experts from Taiwan, Canada, Japan, and the Philippines.
The forum featured three thematic panels focusing on economic security, middle powers and regional security, and lawfare and contestation in international law. Discussions covered supply chain security, cross-border capital, market and strategic dependencies, middle power security cooperation, gray zone activities, and Taiwan’s international legal status. The forum aimed to promote academic exchange and policy dialogue between Taiwan, Canada, and like-minded Indo-Pacific partners, and to deepen democratic countries’ understanding of regional security challenges.
During the economic security panel, Chiu presented a co-authored paper with Chiang Min-yen, Deputy Director for Economic Security at DSET, titled “The Indivisibility of Economic Security: Toward Collective Architecture in Technology Supply Chains.” The study argues that, in the current techno-geopolitical environment, supply chains for semiconductors, batteries, critical minerals, and data infrastructure have become core strategic assets shaping national economic performance and military advantage.
The research further finds that China accumulates control over upstream segments of supply chains and selectively mobilizes these capabilities under specific conditions, forming a pattern of economic pressure characterized as latent coercion. To analyze this mechanism, the study develops a two-layer analytical framework distinguishing between capacity-building and tool mobilization, illustrating how dependency relationships can be transformed into political leverage and deployed in cross-border economic coercion.
From a policy perspective, the study emphasizes that economic security exhibits indivisibility: coercion against a single node generates systemic spillover effects, exposing the broader supply chain network to risk. As a result, effective responses must be grounded in collective action rather than isolated national measures. The study proposes a collective response framework that integrates “promotion” and “protection”: the former focuses on reducing critical dependencies and strengthening resilience prior to crises, while the latter involves pre-coordinated mechanisms—including joint attribution, supply chain reallocation, financial support, and regulatory coordination—to enable timely and aligned responses during crises.
The study concludes that building a credible regional economic security cooperation mechanism requires further institutionalization of consultation triggers, supportive policy instruments, and public-private coordination. Such arrangements would enable Indo-Pacific democracies to respond more effectively in a collective manner, raising the cost and reducing the political effectiveness of economic coercion. The findings also align with the forum’s broader focus on the evolving regional security architecture in the Indo-Pacific.
