Taiwan plans to criminalise unauthorised exports of advanced AI chips and servers to China, bringing its rules closer to the export controls the United States has applied since 2022.
Economic Affairs Minister Kung Ming-hsin told Bloomberg News in an interview on 12 October, published on 16 October, that both product groups will be added to Taiwan’s list of controlled items. After that, sending restricted AI hardware to China would breach the Foreign Trade Act. He did not say when the change will take effect.
Tied to the US trade deal
Kung said some of the new controls will correspond to US measures because of commitments made in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, the deal Taipei and Washington signed earlier this year. Bloomberg described the plan as among the strictest steps taken under President Lai Ching-te.
The US has long barred Chinese buyers from acquiring top-end Nvidia and AMD processors without a licence, but US officials say large volumes of hardware have still reached China through grey channels.
Closing a legal gap
Taiwan already requires permits for some sensitive technology exports, but advanced AI chips and servers are not specifically listed. That has left prosecutors relying on other offences. According to Taiwan News, nine people were indicted in August over an alleged plan to move 130 AI servers to China, 74 of which were allegedly shipped through other countries on false paperwork. The charges were breach of trust and document forgery, not export violations.
Taipei is turning a US export rule into Taiwanese criminal law, and Beijing is building a control list of its own.
Beijing’s parallel move
On the same day, China proposed adding advanced AI technologies to its own export-control list, covering 23 items including large language models, agents, chip designs and computing clusters, according to the Taipei Times. Beijing said the measures are not aimed at any particular country.
What to watch
- The date the new Taiwanese controls take effect and the performance thresholds they use.
- Any official reaction from Beijing to Taipei’s plan.
- Whether China’s draft AI export rules are adopted in their current form.
