During an interrogation session at the Hsinchu District Prosecutors' Office on June 9 about his company's alleged investment in China, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) chairman Robert Tsao (
First, regarding operational know-how: Most of the sophisticated machines used in Taiwan's wafer-foundry industry are imported, and the industry does not possess the crucial technologies. Its success lies in the past assistance of the government, which put up a great amount of capital and offered a highly preferential tax policy. Its success also lies in the nation's high-quality talent, such as engineers with master's or doctoral degrees performing tasks that are often left to regular technicians in foreign semiconductor factories. As a result, we have developed the world's most efficient business process and yield control. This is what operational know-how is.
As for various manufacturing patents, they are simply the records of achievements made as part of building new factories and upgrading to better production processes. Their actual value is not high, and they are obtained to protect a company's rights rather as a tool of competition. Taiwanese chipmakers spend a massive amount of money applying for patents, and Taiwan is already in the top five countries in terms of the number of US patents it owns. But these companies' profits from patent authorization is extremely low.
This shows that for UMC or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's biggest contract chipmaker, their most valuable asset is their ability to raise funds and their operational know-how. Perhaps such expertise cannot be patented, but it is much more valuable than some impractical, transitional patents.
Second, on UMC's alleged violation of the law: The Web sites of UMC (www.umc.com.tw) and He Jian (www.hjtc.com.cn) are strikingly similar. Take He Jian's most advanced 0.18-micron chips for example. About 95 percent of the company's 0.18-micron "libraries" are the same as those of UMC.
If the government fails to severely punish those who break the law, chipmakers that abide by the law and operate in Taiwan will become fools, while breaking the law becomes the best shortcut for laggards to surpass competitors.
Third, on the damage to Taiwan's semiconductor industry: When China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp was established in 2000, it publicly vowed at a press conference in California to catch up to Taiwan and replace our wafer-foundry industry. Today, as a Chinese company, He Jian has also openly joined the array of companies seeking to replace or eliminate Taiwan's semiconductor industry -- with the help of UMC's most advanced manufacturing processes and even its clients. How can the government that nurtured UMC in the past and the law-abiding public possibly accept this?
What's worse, UMC has used Taiwan's resources and spent a lot of money to develop its manufacturing processes. Now, under the chairman's orders, the company has become He Jian's tool for business in China, completely disregarding the constraints of the government and its 900,000 shareholders. This method of harming Taiwan while benefiting China certainly deserves the government's and the public's harshest condemnation.
Tony Su is the convener of the technology section at the Taiwan Economics and Technology Thinktank.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS