Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Tuesday embarked on a six-day trip to Taiwan and Singapore, where she hopes to “close the deal” on a partnership with Foxconn’s research arm at Chicago’s new quantum algorithm center.
Duckworth is on her 13th Congressional Member Delegation (or CODEL) trip since 2018 — and this trip marks her 11th trip to Asia. She told the Sun-Times her main goal in Taiwan will be to push Hon Hai — better known as Foxconn — to invest in the soon-to-be-constructed Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park on the South Side.
“Foxconn has been in Illinois. They’ve met with the governor’s office. They’ve met with Intersect Illinois. And I’m hoping to go in and try to help close the deal,” Duckworth told the Sun-Times. “They’ve toured Argonne and Fermilab [national laboratories]. So this is really to push our quantum microelectronics and to get investments in quantum technology.”
Foxconn and the University of Illinois in 2019 partnered on a $100 million smart technology research center headquarted at the Urbana-Champaign campus.
IBM in December announced the quantum center will be anchored by its modular quantum computer, which will try to advance quantum supercomputing across industries. The new IBM center will operate temporarily out of Hyde Park Labs, a commercial science and tech hub affiliated with the University of Chicago. After the state’s quantum campus is built, the center will move to the 128-acre Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park. The 440-acre development will be completed in phases over the next three to five years.
Sydney-based Diraq, a quantum startup company, also announced it would join the campus.
Duckworth will head to Singapore on Thursday, where she’ll attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, an inter-governmental security conference. She’ll be back in Washington on Sunday, before the Senate gavels in on Monday.
In Taiwan, Duckworth said she plans to continue to secure commitments, in particular with the National Guard and the training of the Taiwan defense forces.
“The other half of what I’ll be doing is really continuing to develop my relationships that I have formed over the years with the Taiwan leadership and the Taiwan Ministry of Defense when it comes to making sure that the Taiwan people understand that the U.S. will stand with them when it comes to securing Taiwan from a potential PRC [People’s Republic of China] attack,” Duckworth said.
Duckworth spent two years of high school in Singapore, one at a British-based school and another at the Singapore American School. She said her CODEL trips are packed, but she tries to let friends know she’s in town.
“I have friends there but these trips are so quick and they’re just work-focused that I don’t often have time to see my friends,” Duckworth said. “I just let them know I’m in town…I would love to see friends that I made. Maybe I’ll get to go out and have dinner at one of the hawker stalls or get some street food.”