Comments by "shazmosushi" (@shazmosushi) on "How Taiwan Created TSMC" video.

+1 that sounds interesting. Also related: why isn't Japan super successful in semi-conductors? They invented blue LEDs... Perhaps as you video alluded to they fell into the trap on spending too much on 'basic research' and not enough on 'applied research'? Or is it that they simply missed TSMC's contract business model and never had the scale to build businesses like Intel fab or Samsung fab?
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It's worth re-iterating (as in previous Asionometry videos) that US sanctions against China's semi-conductor companies will make it an uphill battle to achieve Made In China 2025 goals for China to import substitute the semiconductors used in its exports. Brief overview of the sanctions I'm aware of: SMIC (China's TSMC competitor) are not able to buy ASML lithography machines from the Netherlands. According to South China Morning Post they are currently buying used machines from other companies in China (I guess that's a workaround). Huawei's HiSilicon (fabless design company) can't license ARM Holdings chip reference designs. Huawei can't use the Android operating system due to sanctions. China is even being banned from accessing EDA (chip design software) from America. China could succeed in building indigenous replacements of these technologies one at a time, but when the United States is sanctioning everything at once it's VERY difficult. Especially when eg, Huawei's revenue streams starts drying up and those companies face big budget crunch.
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@Asianometry I agree it's a distant possibility. SMIC is only sanctioned because some end-users are supposed the military. If warming ties means other fabs based in China don't get sanctioned then China stands some chance. According to media reports SMIC already has built a 14nm finFET fabs. I don't know their yields, or how their process compares to Samsung, TSMC and Intel's versions but it would appear that they are catching up (pre-sanctions). Xi Jinping's China is pursuing an import substitution strategy. They see that they spend more on imported semiconductors that they do on importing oil. To paraphrase what you have said in a previous video: "In semiconductors, either you're in the lead, or you suck". I didn't intend this comment to be preachy or ideological, but I really hope the free world think very carefully about the dangers of a totalitarian surveillance state becoming the world leader in THE fundamental building block of modern technology.
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For anybody reading this comment, checkout this channel's "TSMC - Essays" playlist for more videos!
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I think Taiwan being seen as "heading in the right direction" helped a lot (even before the democratization of the 1980s/1990s). Hypothetically when Xi Jinping took power in 2012 had he not inflamed tensions (annexing the SCS, interning 1 million Uighers) but instead immediately implemented very minor democratic reform (eg, widespread local village elections reminiscent of China's famous "Wukan democracy experiment"), then I think Trump would have struggled to gain political support for his 2017 trade war and subsequent sanctions. China's leadership could persuasively argue that Trump's actions would make continued reform impossible, even if they didn't actually intend on continued reform.
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@allacerz2289 I agree the CCP's number one goal is to remain in power indefinitely, and everything else is a means to that end.
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9:13 When you said the government of Taiwan helped organize "housing" you meant real-estate for the businesses right? Or did they actually help organize residential apartments near/within the Hsinchu Science Park?
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@astroboy2345 The United States has been supporting Taiwan under the table for decades after switching recognition in the 1970s. Of course before switching recognition the R.O.C was a card carrying ally of the United States. Since Taiwan has become a beacon of democracy and freedom its just a matter of time until overt support of Taiwan comes back. It will help once Taiwan chooses to formalize its independence in a few decades. Just keep the status quo for a few more decades and let the Chinese Communist Party's Chairman Xi do to his country what Chairman Mao did a few decades ago.
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