Malaysians, Singaporeans brush off Trump’s attack on Intel CEO

Intel’s Malaysian-born CEO was thrust into the international spotlight this week as the latest subject of US President Donald Trump’s scatter-gun targeting, calling for him to “resign immediately” over alleged links to Chinese military contractors and surveillance companies.

Lip-Bu Tan, 65, born in the riverine town of Muar on Malaysia’s Malacca Strait coast in 1959, grew up in Singapore and studied at Nanyang University, which later merged with the University of Singapore to become the National University of Singapore.

He later moved to the United States for postgraduate studies in nuclear engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He was appointed Intel CEO in March, after previously being a board member, and has been an American citizen for more than four decades.

Trump’s sudden outburst on Thursday followed a letter from US Senator Tom Cotton to Intel’s board, raising questions about Tan’s Chinese investments and a criminal case involving his former company, Cadence Design Systems.

“The CEO of Intel is highly conflicted and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.