Taiwan prepares to criminalize exports of restricted AI servers to China under deal covering 99% of tariff barriers
Key Facts
Taiwan is preparing to add AI servers and advanced semiconductors to its export-control list, Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin said, in a move aimed at tightening controls on shipments of restricted equipment to China. Sending the equipment would become a crime under the Foreign Trade Act once the measures take effect, he said. The proposal would shift violations from an administrative process to a criminal one, Bloomberg Law reported, citing the minister. He did not specify when the measures would begin or which products would be included on the final control list. The plan comes as Taiwan works to align its export controls with U.S. restrictions.
Kung said some Taiwanese measures on controlled goods would be aligned with U.S. measures, linking the proposal to commitments Taiwan made in its trade agreement with the United States. The agreement provides for Taiwan to eliminate or reduce 99% of tariff barriers and includes stronger cooperation on supply-chain resilience. This suggests tighter controls on technology exports are part of a broader path toward trade coordination between the two sides. Some measures “will be aligned with U.S. measures,” the minister said. The agreement requires domestic steps before it takes effect, including submission to Taiwan’s legislature for review, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The proposal comes amid Taiwanese investigations into attempts to export high-performance AI servers to China. In August, prosecutors charged nine people, including an Nvidia employee and two people from Super Micro, in a case involving shipments of servers to China. Prosecutors said the servers contained B300 graphics processing units and that their sale to China was prohibited. In a separate attempt in the case, a shipment of 56 servers was thwarted, and the servers remained in Taiwan. Prosecutors said the other attempt failed, explaining that the servers “are still in Taiwan.”
The August case followed an investigation launched in May, when Taiwanese prosecutors said they were investigating three people suspected of illegally exporting Super Micro servers equipped with Nvidia chips to China. The two cases show investigations expanding from suspicions about specific shipments to scrutiny of export routes for restricted servers and chips. In a separate case, Malaysian customs said a shipment was seized as part of an investigation into a network suspected of using Malaysia as a transit point to re-export AI chips. Customs linked the shipment to five suspected smuggling attempts through October 2026. The case places transit routes through intermediary countries in the context of efforts to control access to restricted technology in China.
U.S. restrictions on exports of Nvidia’s advanced products to China date to 2022, when Washington began imposing them and tightened them in subsequent years, according to the Associated Press. Taiwan’s plan draws on that U.S. approach to aligning goods controls, the economy minister said. The U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement remains subject to domestic review before taking effect, including submission to Taiwan’s legislature. The minister did not specify when the proposed export restrictions would take effect. Nvidia shares closed at $203.2488 on October 30, 2026, according to EL7 data.