INTERVIEW/Taiwan's new envoy to Japan vows to boost semiconductor, security cooperation

Taipei, Aug. 16 (CNA) Taiwan's newly-appointed representative to Japan Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) said on Friday he plans to mainly focus on boosting bilateral cooperation in security, semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI) during his term.

The Presidential Office announced Lee would be Taiwan's new envoy on Friday after Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) left the post last week after eight years. Lee is expected to take up the post in September, a source said.

Lee, 69, was vice president of the Examination Yuan and senior advisor to the president under former President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

He also served as minister of the interior and head of the Central Personnel Administration (now called the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration) during former President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) term.

Lee was sentenced to jail for slander in the 1980s before martial law was lifted.

In an interview with CNA on Friday, Lee said that bilateral cooperation in the semiconductor and AI industries and security will be the focus of his term.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) Inc. and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (PSMC) have all recently invested and set up factories in Japan, Lee noted.

Taiwan, a semiconductor and AI chip manufacturing stronghold, has also welcomed Japanese enterprises, he added.

Japanese companies are leading in certain technologies in the semiconductor and AI supply chain, said Lee, who cited the example of the new type of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment -- used for highly advanced chipmaking -- recently reported to have been developed in Japan.

This new technology is reported to reduce power consumption by 90 percent, which Taiwan's high-tech industry urgently needs, Lee said.

He also thanked the Japanese government for its numerous references to the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait following the Japan-United States 2+2 (Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee) meeting in 2021. Many countries have gone on to echo this stance.

Lee added that the world's democracies have all agreed that the Chinese Communist Party must not use force to change the cross-strait status quo.

He noted that the U.S. recently announced a plan to upgrade the U.S. Forces Japan command into a joint force headquarters for better coordination with the Japanese.

Cross-strait peace and stability are also crucial to economic prosperity, given TSMC is responsible for producing 90 percent of the world's highly advanced chips, Lee said, stressing that the supply chain being at risk would damage the world economy.

Exchanging information on security matters with both Japan and the U.S. is, therefore, another of his main tasks, Lee said.

He noted that the relationship between Taiwan and Japan is at its strongest in decades and that building on that success will be a major challenge.

The people and governments of the two countries have supported each other throughout disasters, displaying a mutual friendship rarely seen in the international community, Lee said.