Source: Global Times
[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Zhengfei] In order to consolidate technological hegemony, the United States not only launched the "Chip Act", but also attracted Taiwan, South Korea and Japan to form the "Chip Four-Party Alliance" (CHIP4). Taiwan's TSMC's trend has attracted much attention. There are public opinion concerns whether the United States will use shareholding and other means in the future to turn TSMC into a "American company" from a legal sense.
"Everything cannot escape being destroyed"
According to Taiwan's China Times on the 11th, the US CBS TV station "60 Minutes" broadcast an exclusive interview with TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou on the 10th. Zhang Zhongmou said, "If a war breaks out, TSMC will be destroyed and everything will not escape being destroyed." However, US media quoted a poll on the island saying that most Taiwanese believe that war is unlikely to occur in the short term, and the reason why Taiwanese are so calm is that Taiwan's strong manufacturing industry. "Taiwan is a technology giant, especially in the field of semiconductor . Taiwan is the only source of the world's thinnest microchip , and is almost entirely produced by TSMC." In response, Zhang Zhongmou explained that Taiwanese believe that these chips can protect them from attacks.
The China Times mentioned on the 11th that Taiwan’s leader Tsai Ing-wen said in response to supply chain issues that Taiwan is the key to the global semiconductor layout, and the authorities will continue to maintain Taiwan’s advantages and energy in cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing, making TSMC’s global position more important. However, Yin Naiping, a professor at the Department of Finance at the Political University of Taiwan, believes that TSMC will last for at most three to five years, and other regions will also mass-produce chips in other regions. The importance of TSMC will be greatly weakened. What the authorities should think about is how to support the next key industry, so that Taiwan can continue to maintain an important position in the industrial chain and support the economy.
allows employees to transfer positions to the United States
Recently, the United States has "many ideas" about TSMC. Bloomberg reported on Monday that many U.S. officials are particularly concerned about the "what fate will the world's leading semiconductor industry face?" The United States is stepping up its research and planning a response plan, focusing on the semiconductor chip industry led by TSMC. Sources revealed that when the situation is critical, the United States will "tempt" TSMC employees to board the last few flights, transfer their positions to the United States, and even consider evacuating Taiwan's chip engineers to the United States. But even if the evacuation is feasible, it will take years or even decades to replicate the infrastructure that TSMC has built long-standing elsewhere, and cost tens of billions of dollars.
However, Taiwan Zhongshi Electronic News quoted several current and offender U.S. officials as saying that the above is just a hypothetical plan and many details have not been resolved. In November last year, two scholars from the US Army War Academy published an article, suggesting adopting the " scorched earth strategy " to use TSMC as a "hostage" to deal with the mainland. In response to Bloomberg's report, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs issued a press release on the 8th, saying that TSMC's manufacturing process is so sophisticated and complicated, requiring hundreds of processes, and there are nearly 400 suppliers alone. It is almost impossible to copy the infrastructure established by TSMC or other semiconductor companies to other places even if it costs huge amounts of money. The statement also said that the neighboring Japan and South Korea are also important semiconductor supply chains. Once Taiwan is unstable, it will inevitably endanger the security of the Asia-Pacific region. "Taiwan will not be the only place to be affected."
Yan Zhensheng, a researcher at the Center for International Relations at the Political University of Taiwan, said that the United States had a precedent for immigrating German scientists to the United States as early as , when in World War II, so even if there is a plan, it is no surprise that TSMC engineers are recruited, which highlights the United States distrusts Taiwan and treats Taiwan as a pawn. He bluntly stated that Taiwan should not blindly follow the US "anti-China" strategy. Lu Xingzhi, an analyst at the island's heavyweight semiconductor industry, questioned, "Is this the reason why US capital, who knows the inside story, has been selling TSMC at a low price for the past year?" He criticized why the United States can decide to destroy TSMC facilities privately, which is "equivalent to destroying the lifeline of Taiwan's entire semiconductor and technology industry."
Taiwan's United Daily News published an editorial on the 11th saying that among the risks in the Taiwan Strait, the United States does not care about the "common value of democracy" or the "will of the people of Taiwan". They care about the US economy and the dependence of multinational companies on Taiwan's advanced chips. The United States has repeatedly asked TSMC to set up factories in the United States, mainly to strengthen the United States' grasp of chip supply. In other words, although the Tsai Ing-wen administration has repeatedly emphasized that TSMC is Taiwan's "silicon shield", the United States has planned to move the silicon shield to the United States to be safer. "As for the lives and well-being of the people of Taiwan, it is not that important to the United States."
TSMC is "whose family"
According to Taiwan's "Feng Media" report on the 11th, former DPP "legislator" Guo Zhengliang has another concern. He said that TSMC's real assets are talents because they have accumulated a lot of process experience. It is "very intriguing" that the United States wants to use aircraft to pick up TSMC's talents, which means that "it may gradually turn TSMC into an American company." There is also a reason for legal intervention. He believes that the United States may try every means to make TSMC legally become a US company, which is equivalent to TSMC becoming a foreign-funded company, and just putting a large amount of equipment in Taiwan. "The United States is laying out a situation, which will cause geopolitical and power outage risks in the financial market. This adverse factor will continue to be thrown out until most shareholders think it is safer to set up TSMC in the United States, and the United States is slowly shaping this public opinion."
So, "Who is TSMC?" Taiwan's "Business Times" introduced an article in 2020 that among the list of major shareholders released in TSMC's 2019 annual report, the first place is the TSMC depositary receipt account, with a shareholding ratio of 20.54%. The second is Taiwan’s “Executive Yuan National Development Fund Management Council”, which holds 6.38% of the shares. This is the reason why many people say that "TSMC is an American holding company" and that "the major shareholder is an American" is based on this. However, it is worth noting that Citibank is just a deposit bank for TSMC to issue shares on US . It cannot be said that it is the "major shareholder" of TSMC for the time being.
In the equity structure of TSMC, the Taiwan authorities hold 6.38% of the shares, financial institutions hold 2.8% of the shares, other legal persons hold 4.55% of the shares, overseas institutions and overseas persons hold 78.48% of the shares, and individuals hold 7.79% of the shares. But although the "outdoor" here includes European and American countries, especially American investment institutions, mutual funds and individuals, it actually includes the total holdings of institutions and individual investors around the world such as Hong Kong, Singapore government, Norwegian Central Bank , and even mainland China. Although the number of institutions and individuals from the United States holds a large number of shares, they are very scattered. Most of them are just financial investment in , which will not have an impact on TSMC's production and operation. The article said that TSMC's de facto largest shareholder should be the "Executive Yuan National Development Fund". TSMC's senior executives and employees also hold a lot of shares, and 7.56% of the shares are reserved for employee incentives. Therefore, TSMC is currently a Taiwanese company.
