Chip Tycoon Vows to Fund Taiwan’s ‘Civilian Army’ Against China
(Bloomberg) -- The founder of Taiwanese chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp. outlined plans to fund military training for millions of “civilian warriors” in Taiwan to fight against any potential Chinese invasion.
Robert Tsao, who stepped down as chairman of UMC in 2006, said at a Thursday briefing in Taipei that he will donate NT$1 billion ($32.8 million) to help train 3 million civilian soldiers in collaboration with the military and an additional 300,000 expert marksmen. The funds are part of a NT$3 billion pledge he made in August to aid Taiwan in protecting itself from an increasingly belligerent China.
“Given the Chinese Communist Party’s record of atrocities against its own people and its brutal domination of those like the Uyghurs who are not even Chinese, the CCP’s threats have only ignited among the Taiwanese people a bitter hatred against this threatening enemy, and a shared determination to resist,” Tsao said in a prepared statement.
Wearing a bullet-proof vest throughout the briefing, the 75-year-old also announced he was renouncing his Singaporean passport and reverting back to Taiwanese citizenship, which he had given up in 2011.
“I am back in Taiwan, and I will die in Taiwan. I will not watch the CCP turn Taiwan into another Hong Kong,” he told reporters in Taipei.
Tsao’s move comes at the most fraught time in decades for relations across the Taiwan Strait.
After US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taipei in early August, China launched a series of military and economic countermeasures to signal its displeasure. The People’s Liberation Army conducted drills encircling much of Taiwan and fired missiles directly over the main island in the days following Pelosi’s visit.
While China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and vehemently opposes any implication of independent statehood from other countries, the government of President Tsai Ing-wen views the island as a de facto sovereign nation awaiting broader international recognition.
More than 87% of the Taiwanese public wants the island to remain independently governed outside of the control of Beijing, according to the latest results of a long-running survey of political beliefs released in July by the Election Study Center of National Chengchi University.
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