Who gave the Taiwanese the confidence that "TSMC will not leave"

The original text was published on 2021/5/11 " Multidimensional News "

The semiconductor industry is regarded as the top priority of Taiwan's economy. Zhang Zhongmou, the founder of TSMC, recently appealed to the Taiwan government in public. Wafer foundry is Taiwan's advantageous industry, and the Taiwan government and society should protect it; Taiwan's current water resources are tight, The economic department managed to allocate water resources for TSMC, urgently transferred the water from the Feicui Reservoir and Shimen Reservoir to the "North-South Water Diversion", and put the water in the Hsinchu Nanliao Desalination Plant to meet the water demand of the Zhuke Park, and called on the Taichung City Government to cooperate with "groundwater". Normalization of excavation" to feed the water-thirsty China Science Park; Taiwan's Executive Yuan has also amended the "Regulations on Industry-University Cooperation and Talent Cultivation and Innovation in National Key Fields" to support the establishment of industrial colleges jointly funded by the National Development Fund and enterprises to directly serve Enterprises supplement technical talents, and TSMC's "Semiconductor Institute" of Taiwan's Tsinghua University has received particular attention.

Europe and the United States keep beckoning TSMC still calm?

TSMC has gathered more than half of the world's chip production capacity. At the moment when the US and China are engaged in a technology war and the global chip shortage is raging, it is particularly attractive, and Taiwanese netizens have also changed their previous views of TSMC's "blood sweat, high energy consumption, The critical attitude of "high pollution" has changed to "brainless all in TSMC", and the tout of TSMC is like its stock price, which continues to hit highs.

However, a few days ago, the US media Bloomberg (Bloomberg) columnist Gao Canming (Tim Culpan) with the title "TSMC must end the "Global-Not-Global Strategy Must End" (TSMC's Global-Not-Global Strategy Must End), pointed out that TSMC does The global business, but the production bases of high-end chips are concentrated in a radius of 100 miles, three of Taiwan's Zhuke, Zhongke and Nanke, such a highly concentrated model will not be sustainable in the future.

Gao Canming believes that the current international relations situation has put TSMC at the center of the geopolitical storm. However, TSMC's management seems to be deliberately turning a blind eye and refusing to change its previous practices. TSMC's CEO Wei Zhejia told investors, "Our R&D center and most of the production lines. We will continue to place it in Taiwan, and we do not currently plan to further build fabs in other regions such as Europe, but we do not rule out this possibility.” A few days ago, Thierry Breton, executive commissioner of the European Union's industrial and service industries, beckoned to TSMC. Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Meihua and major economic think tanks seemed to be quite unimpressed. They all agreed that TSMC will continue to remain in Taiwan. Netizens also scoffed at the possibility of TSMC's outflow. At a time when there are systemic problems in water and electricity supply, what is the reason for them to be so confident?

What are the advantages of TSMC

Zhang Zhongmou gave a speech in public a few days ago. He mentioned that Taiwan has three important advantages: excellent talents who are dedicated and willing to invest in manufacturing, excellent managers who stay in Taiwan, and an extensive transportation network that facilitates rapid dispatch of manpower. Zhang Zhongmou also mentioned the situation in other countries: He pointed out that the United States has the advantages of water, electricity and land, but its excellent talents prefer to invest in finance, venture capital and marketing industries, rather than participate in manufacturing, and the federal and state governments are unlikely to Subsidies have been given for a long time; the semiconductor manufacturing industry in mainland China is more than 5 years behind TSMC, and the design capabilities of logic chips are also about 1 to 2 years behind the United States and Taiwan; Zhang Zhongmou also admitted that South Korea is a strong competitor.

Gao Canming pointed out that Zhang Zhongmou’s remarks are contradictory, and believes that the United States has cultivated many qualified managers and engineers, many of whom work for TSMC, including the current CEO Wei Zhejia. He also said that Zhang Zhongmou and the current chairman of TSMC Liu Deyin both have American nationality. , and obtained a degree from a US university. In all fairness, Gao Canming's counterattack against Zhang Zhongmou is not entirely on point, but he also pointed out a very important point: TSMC's top management is deeply influenced by the American system, and the introduction of this system has helped TSMC to open the door to a certain extent. The gap with other companies in Taiwan.

Taiwanese netizens "talked about it with great relish", and the point used to retaliate against Gao Canming is that Taiwanese are "hard-working" than Americans. Taiwanese workers are more willing to accept long working hours, on-call shifts on holidays, and are more disciplined and will not "" Smuggling donuts into a dust-free environment.” This spirit of willingness to “dig your heart out” is exactly where TSMC can establish its life in Taiwan with peace of mind, and the semiconductor industry can take root in Taiwan. Therefore, Taiwanese netizens believe that if TSMC relocates to Europe and the United States In other countries, the cost will be doubled due to the loss of "large and fresh liver".

This kind of "advantage" makes Taiwanese "confident", but I am afraid it is also what Zhang Zhongmou is embarrassed to say directly. Looking at the three "advantages" he listed, they are all related to "people". "Joining TSMC, the excellent transportation network is conducive to mobilizing a large number of labor forces in a short period of time. Once managers leave Taiwan, they will be "unaccustomed to the environment" and unable to exert their management talents. TSMC and other semiconductor companies work hard with sweat, brains, and liver. They have long working hours and need to be on standby in shifts, so there is a phenomenon of high personnel turnover. TSMC is indeed based on better treatment and better technology than people. Becoming a company that is highly sought after in Taiwan also reflects that the employment environment in Taiwan is hard and sweaty.

From another perspective, since TSMC's advantages are based on the relative advantages of other companies in Taiwan, as well as the relatively hard-working and low-cost labor in European and American countries, these "dynamic comparative advantages" are piled up, then it is not. It cannot be replicated at all. Although the existing technology in mainland China is relatively backward, the gap with European, American, and Taiwanese companies is narrowing in the field of chip design and manufacturing, and the number of "livers" owned by mainland China is beyond Taiwan's capacity. In comparison, the degree of hard work and hard work is not necessarily inferior to Taiwan, but water, electricity and land are far superior to Taiwan, and its political system is more willing to subsidize enterprises for a long time than European and American countries. It is also mentioned that Zhang Zhongmou was an important reason for TSMC to launch a patent litigation war against SMIC when it was a start-up and fledgling.

Government militia groups cooperate with each other, yield to the United States and squeeze domestically

In order to consolidate the semiconductor industry in Taiwan, the Taiwan Legislative Yuan amended the "Regulations on Industry-University Cooperation and Talent Cultivation and Innovation in National Key Fields", which is expected to help enterprises to train the required talents directly through colleges and universities. It can be said that it is a very direct and clear way for enterprises. liver". However, directly "creating livers" is not enough. Organizations such as the "United Association for Economic Democracy" in Taiwan are worried that these created "livers" will be poached by Chinese companies or TSMC's competitors, and even propose that the regulations should be set up to prevent loopholes , preventing mainlanders and Koreans from entering industrial colleges, and banning their graduates from entering Chinese and Korean companies such as Samsung to prevent them from posing a threat to TSMC. So, if these people take jobs in American companies such as Qualcomm and Intel, wouldn't they pose a threat to TSMC?

Human beings are inherently greedy, lazy and fearful. At a time when the global economy is interconnected and highly dependent, and we have talents, we should not arbitrarily deprive them of the right to "vote with their feet". If we want to prevent brain drain, we should also think about ourselves. Whether the economic conditions are too harsh and improving is the fundamental way. Today, the government and civil society are proud of voluntarily serving the "liver bitterness" of the United States, and they have set restrictions in many ways to deprive them of the right to vote with their feet. Isn't it absurd? The government and non-governmental organizations have also tried their best to promote and persuade Taiwanese people to be willing to "sell livers" for Americans, so as to create conditions for retaining TSMC.