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Asus mum after asked by Ukrainian minister to cut ties with Russia

ROC Central News Agency

03/12/2022 08:34 PM

Taipei, March 12 (CNA) Taiwanese electronics company Asustek Computer (Asus) has chosen not to respond for the moment to an appeal by Ukraine's minister of digital transformation to stop doing business with Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also Ukraine's vice prime minister, posted a letter to Asus Chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) on Twitter Thursday, asking him to stop doing business with Russia until "the Russian aggression in Ukraine is fully stopped and fair order is restored."

He called on Asus to stop relationships with Russia-based clients and partners and no longer supply them with hardware and electronics or provide technical support.

Asus said Saturday evening, however, that it would not respond at this time.

A local investment consultant estimates that Russia accounted for under 5 percent of Asus' notebook shipments last year, but Asus notebooks may have a strong presence in the Russian market.

A 2021 consumer survey by online statistics database Statista found that 29 percent of Russian respondents said the brand of the laptop in their household was Asus, followed by Acer at 23 percent, Lenovo at 19 percent and HP at 13 percent.

The letter sent was nearly identical to the many Fedorov has posted on Twitter to urge other IT companies such as PayPal, Microsoft, Union Pay, Hitachi, Netscout, Intel, SAP, and Amazon to end their business ties with Russia.

In the letter, he cited the examples of Oracle, Samsung, Dell, and Siemens suspending their operations in Russia and MasterCard and Visa blocking credit card services to banks in that country.

"The IT industry always values and supports values of responsibility and democracy. We believe, your company also shares them. Now, responsibility is the choice, the choice that defines the future. And now, more than ever, people's lives depend on your choice," the letter said.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, over 330 companies have withdrawn from or suspended operations in Russia, according to Al Jazeera.

(By Chung Jung-feng and William Yen)

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