Taiwan to criminalize AI chip exports to China under US deal — SkimNews
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- Taiwan is preparing to tighten export controls on AI chips to China, joining a Trump administration clampdown on smuggling of cutting-edge semiconductors.
- Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin told Bloomberg the government will add AI servers and cutting-edge semiconductors to its controlled items list, making unauthorized shipments to China a criminal offense under the Foreign Trade Act.
- Kung said the measures correspond to American ones because of commitments in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, the US-Taiwan deal signed in 2026, though he declined to specify when the new rules take effect.
- Taiwan currently does not classify unauthorized AI chip exports to China as a crime, leaving prosecutors to pursue smugglers only via other existing local laws.
- US officials have alleged that billions of dollars' worth of Nvidia hardware has reached China through a sophisticated black market, despite long-standing US restrictions on Nvidia and AMD chip sales.
- Separately, Taiwan plans to raise billions of dollars to develop US industrial parks, building an in-country supply chain for Nvidia and other AI hardware makers.
Why it matters: Taiwan gains its first direct criminal tool to prosecute AI chip smuggling—previously a legal gray area where prosecutors had to improvise under unrelated statutes—giving US-aligned enforcement teeth against a black market that US officials say has funneled billions of dollars' worth of Nvidia hardware to China.
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