Mainland: DPP's efforts to relocate TSMC facility to U.S. hurt Taiwan

A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Wednesday warned Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that its efforts to promote Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) to build new facilities in foreign countries will damage the chip giant's competitive advantages.

Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council made the comments in response to a media query concerning an article written by semiconductor industry heavyweights in Taiwan region, which worried that the U.S. attempted to use Chips and Science Act to master the technology of Taiwan enterprises and weaken the strength of TSMC.

The article, titled "Poorly designed Chips Act hurts Taiwan, TSMC," was written by Chang-Tai Hsieh, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Burn Lin, a former vice-president of TSMC and Chintay Shih, a former president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan.

Taking TSMC's facility in Camas, Washington as an example, the article said that the facility struggled to find the workers it needed to stay competitive and it even suffered production costs 50 percent higher than that in Taiwan region.

Noting the TSMC plans to build a new facility in Pheonix, Arizona, U.S., the article said, "relocating semiconductor manufacturing to the U.S. is thus an 'expensive exercise in futility.'"

Listing the risks the Chips Act might pose for TSMC, including another company potentially replacing TSMC as the leader in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, the article pointed out that TSMC's fall from its dominant position would further reinforce the sense that the U.S. ultimately does not care about Taiwan.

The article aroused public opinions, which pointed out that the DPP authorities use TSMC as a trading chip to promote its construction in foreign countries in order to attract external forces to "support Taiwan."

As for those opinions, Chen said the article largely reflects the doubts of the industry insiders in Taiwan about the DPP authorities' unprincipled, bottomless adherence and pandering to external forces, as well as the concerns about the island's dominant industry being hollowed out, core enterprises being depressed, and competitive advantages being weakened.

"If Taiwan's economic independence in industrial development and its right to speak in the global production and supply chain have been lost, what can Taiwan rely on?"

So the views of those industry experts are not alarmist, but a "warning word" for Taiwan society, Chen said.

(Cover: File photo of Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. /Xinhua)