On the sidelines of a legislative meeting earlier today, Taiwan's Economics Minister Wang Mei-Hua (王美花) indicated to reporters that Asus was planning to withdraw from Russia ASAP. Reuters now reports that Asus has gone official, and declared that product shipments to Russia have ceased.
In its statement, Asus admits that its Russia business is already at "an effective standstill," with regard to shipments. This is largely due to "complex challenges across supply chain, logistics and banking, plus other factors." Moreover, Asus said that it is routine for it to follow all international regulations. The Taiwanese government is supportive of Russia sanctions in line with those in the US – addressing goods and services which may be of use to Russian government or military operations.
While the above sounds like a rather cold and businesslike way to support Ukraine, the statement included some additional signs of support and empathy. For example, Asus said that it was "deeply concerned about the growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine." Asus added that it will be donating the equivalent of $1 million US dollars to the Taiwanese relief agency which is in charge of humanitarian donations for Ukraine. The firm wrapped up its statement by saying that "We hope that peace will be restored soon and timely humanitarian aid will reach everyone in distress."
Late last week a letter from Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister, shared on Twitter, asked Asus to withdraw sales and service of its "brilliant technology" in Russia, as an act of solidarity with peaceful Ukrainians. This letter was widely discussed on various Taiwanese political panel shows this weekend, so local media had questions ready to field to the Economics Minister today. Previous letters addressed to companies like Intel, SAP, PayPal, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple appear to have hurried decisions to support Ukraine.
There is a lot of sympathy for Ukraine's plight in Taiwan, given Taiwan's proximity to its own much larger neighbor. However, during the news discussions this weekend some were asking why Asus, MSI and Gigabyte should shutter their Russia businesses and leave the market to the likes of China-based Lenovo.
Asus doesn't break down its PC revenue in individual countries in its public accounts. Precise information about country-by-country sales isn't therefore available, but some reports suggest that 5% of Asus laptop shipments were to Russia in 2021, and Asus maintained a fully owned Russian sales unit to service these customers.
