00:00As someone who knows the Southern African region intimately, what do you make of Taiwan's decision to go back on its earlier announcement that it was going to put export controls on chips headed for South Africa?
00:12Obviously, this is a very insulting move to downgrade our true office in South Africa, including the main office in Pretoria.
00:24Not only, you know, unilaterally renaming them and also, you know, forcing the office, the main office to relocate from Pretoria currently to Johannesburg unilaterally.
00:43So I think we were forced, the same goes, but back into the corner.
00:49I think we came up with this unfortunate move.
00:55And now that I was told that the South African government has agreed, has agreed finally to talk with us.
01:04So that's why MOFA this time around, you know, said, OK, fine.
01:08You like to talk, then let's talk.
01:10Do you see Taiwan using chips and other tech export controls in the future as a diplomatic bargaining tool?
01:17Well, well, I don't rule out the possibility, you know, after all, you know, the TSMC of Taiwan has become household names around the world.
01:28And we are the major, you know, the supplier and producer of the most sophisticated chips today.
01:39So that's become a, it's a, it's a wonderful and valuable, you know, with the resource of Taiwan's government.
01:49So we, you know, we hate to, we hate to, I'd like to emphasize, John, that we hate to, you know, impose any restrictions on the export control of chips to any, any, any countries around the world.
02:03But unless and until the certain countries give us a reason to.
02:09If Taiwan were to go ahead and use chips as a, as a bargaining tool in diplomacy, can you see any downsides?
02:16For instance, would it increase countries like South Africa's dependence on Chinese competitors?
02:21Any international move, either politically or economically, definitely has some pros and cons.
02:27There might be some downside, but I think we just, we were forced to, to, to try, whether, you know, it's working, we don't know yet, but we hate to do that.
02:39You know, we hate, I repeat that.
02:41We hate to do that unless we were given a reason to.
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