Lennart Heim, Compute Lead at the RAND Technology and Security Policy Center, and Policy Fellow Jack Freed visited DSET on September 8 to exchange views on semiconductor export controls, artificial intelligence policy, and the role of allies in economic security.
DSET CEO Dr. Jeremy Chih-Cheng Chang welcomed the delegation and introduced DSET’s research priorities and recent reports. Mr. Heim highlighted RAND’s role as a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), which has long undertaken U.S. federal-level research projects with the aim of providing objective analysis on critical issues. He noted that RAND’s Technology and Security Policy Center focuses on frontier AI and related risks, the semiconductor supply chain, and compute challenges.
During the meeting, Mr. Heim observed that semiconductors have increasingly been treated as bargaining chips in negotiations, while internal divisions remain within the White House regarding export controls and tariff policy. Mr. Freed added that his work centers on quantitative assessments of China’s technological capabilities and emphasized his interest in DSET’s recent report, Uncovering Huawei’s Shadow Network: Shenzhen Major Industry Investment Group and Taiwanese Suppliers in China’s Semiconductor Strategy, which examined how shadow firms shape China’s semiconductor ambitions.
Dr. Chang noted that the Biden administration has begun to frame export controls as part of its broader “economic statecraft,” while Taiwan has historically relied more on outbound investment screening since the 1990s as its primary economic security tool. DSET’s National Security Team added that although Taiwan has traditionally maintained a conservative approach toward export control measures, it was the second jurisdiction after the United States to add Huawei to its Entity List, and Taiwan’s National Security Council has also established a dedicated unit on economic security.
In response to RAND’s questions regarding the challenges of Taiwan-U.S. cooperation on export controls, DSET Economic Security Adjunct Policy Analyst Tsai-Yi Wang shared that DSET is preparing a forthcoming report on ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), recommending that the United States and its allies consider expanding the Entity List to include additional Chinese firms. Non-Resident Fellow Chih-Hua Tseng added that he and fellow Non-Resident Fellow Da-Wei Yi are conducting collaborative research on the legal foundations of export controls with local institutions. He stressed that understanding the role of allies in U.S. export control policymaking remains a key focus for DSET’s research.
