Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has issued an unusually pointed advisory following the implementation of China’s revamped exit-entry regulations. An editorial in the Taipei Times on 18 September argues that semiconductor engineers, R&D managers and sales staff who routinely shuttle across the Strait must now ask not whether they can enter China, but whether they will be allowed to depart. The MAC highlights two new risk factors. First, Chinese authorities can withhold notice of an exit ban when national-security investigations are involved, depriving travellers of the ability to contest the decision or arrange legal support. Second, possession of sensitive electronic data—design files, customer lists, cloud accounts—could itself be deemed a threat to “industrial security,” triggering a ban under Article 4 of Decree No. 841. Industry groups representing Taiwan’s US$200-billion chip sector say they are updating travel guidelines. Recommended measures include providing “clean” laptops, disabling access to corporate servers while in China and scheduling critical meetings in third-country hubs such as Singapore. Multinationals employing large numbers of Taiwanese nationals are likewise revisiting succession planning in case key engineers become unavailable. The episode underlines how China’s domestic regulations can reverberate far beyond its borders. Cross-border talent exchanges have long been a pillar of the integrated Greater China electronics supply chain. With export-control compliance and data-security regimes tightening on both sides of the Strait, companies may need to rebalance in-person collaboration with virtual alternatives.
Source: Taipei Times
