TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s vital technology industry has unwittingly become embroiled in Middle East politics after it was revealed that thousands of explosive pagers used to kill members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group were manufactured using Taiwanese company branding.
Taiwanese tech company Gold Apollo denied on Wednesday that it manufactured the AR-924 pagers involved in the mass explosion in Lebanon, saying they were made by a European company called BAC under a license agreement.
“According to the agreement, we have licensed BAC to use our brand trademarks to sell products in certain territories, but BAC remains fully responsible for the design and manufacturing of the products,” Gold Apollo said in a statement.
“We only provide brand trademark authorization and are not involved in the design and manufacturing of this product,” the company added.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said it had no record of direct exports to Lebanon and that the pagers may have been modified after manufacture. Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The New York Times and Reuters, citing anonymous officials, reported that Israeli authorities had planted a small amount of explosive in a pager before the blast.
Israel has not commented.
Taiwanese analysts have questioned whether Taiwan’s government or Gold Apollo willingly participated in the attack, which Lebanese authorities say killed nine people and wounded more than 2,700.
Still, the incident has drawn unfavorable attention to Taiwan and its world-renowned technology industry, which produces the majority of the semiconductors used to power nearly all electronic devices around the world.
Professor Liu Chih-cheng of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology said he was “shocked” by the news and that people on the island were worried.
“Taiwan has very close ties with the US in all aspects, but given that Taiwan is an open society and a full democracy, I find it inconceivable that Taiwanese companies would be involved in such a terrible conspiracy. To even hint at such an idea is completely impossible and unthinkable,” Liu told Al Jazeera.
“I don’t think anyone would act as unprofessional or foolish as Gold Apollo did,” Liu added.
While Taiwan is unlikely to have been directly involved, the incident nonetheless raises uncomfortable questions about the future of Taiwan’s tech industry given its importance in global supply chains, said Yachi Chang, a professor of technology law at National Taiwan Ocean University.
“This case will be a very important lesson for the industry,” Qiang told Al Jazeera.
“Taiwan’s tech industry used to think that they were just hardware manufacturers, apolitical, just doing their own business. But that’s no longer the case.”
The revelation brings the impact of the war in Gaza to Taiwan.
Taiwan typically keeps its distance from global conflicts and geopolitical disputes, except where Beijing claims the self-ruled island as a province.
Since the war in Gaza began in October, Taipei has remained largely silent about the Palestinian death toll, although it condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Taiwan does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, and Israel, like many other countries, does not officially recognise Taipei, but both countries maintain close ties with the United States.
Taipei is one of the world’s most diplomatically isolated governments, with just 12 official allies, but it more than excels in global influence, thanks in part to a powerful technology industry.
Taiwan is home to TSMC, which produces about 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips and forms the bedrock of the island’s export-focused economy.
About two-thirds of Taiwan’s exports, accounting for about 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), are classified as machinery and electronics, ranging from high-performance chips in iPhones to tiny parts such as screws in car engines.
Alongside cutting-edge technology, Taiwanese factories also produce more outdated technology such as pagers that run on chips that are less advanced than those used in smartphones.
Taiwan’s economy is also dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, such as Gold Apollo, which was founded in 1995 and specializes in pagers and small wireless communication devices used in restaurants and hotels.
Chiang said Taiwan has signed up to initiatives such as the U.S.-led Clean Network to keep Chinese technology out of Western telecommunications infrastructure, but that the incident in Lebanon highlighted the need for Taiwanese tech companies to pay more attention to their supply chains.
“You may remember the US was advocating for a clean network, a clean infrastructure, because at each link throughout the supply chain, there could be the weakest link, and we don’t know which link that will be,” she said.
“That’s why we need to clean up our entire network and our entire infrastructure. The need is apparent here.”
Tuesday’s attack also raised questions about Taiwan’s security in a country where people have become accustomed to Chinese threats to “reunify” the island by force if it deems necessary.
Some Taiwanese internet users wonder whether pagers could be used in similar attacks by Chinese tech companies in the future.
“What we should be worried about is that the other side of the Taiwan Strait will follow the same pattern and attack us,” one user wrote on the popular Reddit-like message board PTT.
“Taiwan just wants to sell stuff,” wrote another. “How other countries screw around is the Middle East’s business.”
