China has recently slowed customs clearance on exports to Taiwan of germanium-based and quartz-based optical materials, along with some rare-earth magnets used in aerospace applications, according to a Nikkei Asia report cited by ABMedia. The delays have stretched delivery schedules for Taiwanese manufacturers and, in some cases, led to lost orders. Industry sources said the issue has affected multiple companies, with some optical firms reporting that extended review times at Chinese customs have become a broad supply-chain problem since last year. People familiar with the matter also said some Chinese suppliers had been questioned by authorities about customer identities and shipments. The report said quartz remains especially hard to replace because chip equipment makers require extremely high quality and precision, while alternative suppliers outside China are limited. In aerospace, executives said neodymium magnets and other permanent magnets from China have become a bottleneck for motor production. Against that backdrop, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs is backing the Industrial Technology Research Institute, or ITRI, in developing domestic rare-earth capabilities, with a goal of building its first pilot production line within three years.

AppWorks founder Lin Chih-chen has pushed back on the view that the startup accelerator’s rise was built on his family background. In a recent post, Lin said the only business meeting he secured through his father’s connections during AppWorks’ founding period was with Acer co-founder Stan Shih, and that meeting brought no investment. Instead, Shih told him the model would not succeed in Taiwan. Lin said AppWorks later proved otherwise, with the firm becoming one of Taiwan’s best-known startup accelerators and going on to raise multiple venture funds with assets under management exceeding NT$10 billion. Lin argued that the four major institutional shareholders in AppWorks Fund I — China Development-related H&Q, Cathay Life, Phison Electronics, and United Daily News Group — were not introduced through his family. He traced all four relationships back, directly or indirectly, to the network he built through his MR JAMIE blog, startup events, accelerator activities, and the broader entrepreneur community. Fund I, formally Ben Sun Venture Capital Co., Ltd., was established in 2012 with initial capital of NT$300 million. His account details how each investor came in through a different path: H&Q saw AppWorks as an early pipeline for software startups, Cathay Life arrived through a chain that began with an email interview request from a Singapore exchange student, Phison invested after a book-promotion interview with founder Pua Khein-Seng, and United Daily News Group joined as it searched for e-commerce and new media opportunities.