Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (62416)	3/28/2002 12:41:36 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Strait just wafer-thin -- South China Morning Post, 3/27/2002 e-insite.net EIGHT-INCH CHIP discs, the size of a small pizza, give Taiwan an upper hand over its mainland rival. And now these silicon wafers have been thrust into the centre of a national debate about money, patriotism, economic survival and national security. After three months of painful deliberation, Taiwan's Government is considering lifting a ban on domestic companies investing in wafer plants in China. The Government promises a decision by the end of this month. But already influential officials, including the Premier and the Mainland Affairs Council, Taipei's top policy-making body on China, have spoken in favour of lifting the ban. Chip-makers have clamoured for the Government to loosen restrictions on moving wafer plants across the Taiwan Strait for at least a year now, arguing that expansion into China is inevitable and crucial to staying competitive. Opponents, including former president Lee Teng-hui, argue Taiwan would essentially be surrendering its dominance in chip-making and relinquishing the island's one means of economic survival. A thousand protesters took to the streets earlier this month, calling on the Government to "keep industries at home" and "not (to) let Taiwan money be swallowed by Chinese pigs". Computers are the pride of the new Taiwan, which shifted two decades ago into the hi-tech goods that now account for one-third of the island's US$ 300 billion gross domestic product. The anchors of Taiwan's hi-tech industry are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), both known for setting up wafer plants - also called foundries or fabs - that electronics companies contract to produce made-to-order chips. In recent years, Taiwan's chip-makers have watched with great envy as computer parts assemblers follow in the footsteps of cheap sneakers, toys and umbrellas in the late 1980s in search of cheaper land and labour in China. The