After the publication of a series of investigations into such deliveries, export control rules were tightened.
Taiwan's Ministry of Economy announced a complete cessation of deliveries to Russia of machine tools that can be used in military enterprises.
Deutsche Welle writes about this.
After the publication of a series of investigations on deliveries, the island tightened export control rules. In particular, the fine for the initial violation of sanctions imposed against Russia and Belarus was significantly increased to 1 million Taiwan dollars (approximately 31,100 US dollars).
In addition, the Ministry of Economy reported that it is conducting “active explanatory work” with manufacturers, urging them to comply with the laws and control the final flow of products.
According to the department, the changes are effective and the volume of machine tool exports from Taiwan to Russia “fell to zero.”
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Taiwan was the most important supplier of machine tools to the Russian Federation
In January of this year, the Russian publication The Insider and the Taiwanese The Reporter published a joint investigation stating that Taiwan, despite the pro-Ukrainian position of the authorities, has become the main supplier of metalworking machines for enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Russia. The publication indicated that these exports go through third countries, for example, Turkey.
In February, Taipei imposed sanctions against several Russian companies mentioned in the article.
In July, a new investigation by The Insider was published stating that the Taiwanese company Giant Force intends to bypass the restrictions by providing Russia with a device for testing the heat-resistant coating of missile bodies – a salt fog chamber. According to the publication, the scheme involved a Chinese plant of a Taiwanese company, a Malaysian transport company and a Kyrgyz bank. As a result, the deliveries were disrupted due to the vigilance of banks, particularly Chinese ones, who feared sanctions for exporting dual-use goods.
The deliveries of Taiwanese machine tools to Russia were also mentioned in reports by the British Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies and the Open Source Centre, a US government centre that analyses open-source information for US intelligence agencies.
