Taiwan to tighten export controls on AI servers and advanced chips, minister says

Taiwan plans to add artificial intelligence servers and cutting-edge semiconductors to its list of controlled export items, Economic Affairs Minister Kung Ming-hsin told Bloomberg News in an interview published on Friday.

Once the measures take effect, shipping restricted AI hardware to China will become a criminal offence under Taiwan’s Foreign Trade Act, Kung said. He declined to say when the measures would be introduced.

Kung said some of Taiwan’s controls would correspond to US rules because of commitments Taipei made under the Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade. “Going forward, some of our measures on controlled items will correspond to American ones,” he told Bloomberg.

Taiwan does not currently treat unauthorised exports of AI chips to China as a crime, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported. Prosecutors must instead use other laws to bring cases against suspected smugglers.

In August, Taiwanese prosecutors indicted nine people over an alleged scheme to illegally export AI servers to China, Taiwan News reported. Authorities said that case involved 130 servers, 74 of which were allegedly shipped to China through other countries using false documents. The charges included breach of trust and document forgery rather than offences specific to AI hardware exports.

The United States has tightened controls on advanced semiconductor exports to China since 2022, citing concerns that the technology could strengthen China’s military.