INVESTMENT THREAT:Government promises to prevent a hollowing out of the IC industry lack substance, as it has not provided concrete safeguards, experts said
Taipei Times
Date: Dec 15, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
Opening the semiconductor industry to Chinese investment without adequate
Legal, academic and industrial representatives listen at a press conference in Taipei yesterday as National Cheng Kung University electronic engineering professor Chang Soon-jyh explains his opposition to allowing China to invest in Taiwan’s IC industry. Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
safeguards would deepen Chinese influence and lead to a hollowing out of the industry, several academics said yesterday.
“China holds a knife in one hand and money in the other and then says to us: ‘You are my person and would you like money? Because otherwise I’ll knife you,’” Chang Shun-chih (張順志), a professor of electronics engineering at National Cheng Kung University. “However, many people only see the money and do not see the knife.”
Chang made the remarks at a joint press conference by several academics and the Economic Democracy Union to protest Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng’s (鄧振中) statement late last month that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government intends to open the sector to Chinese investment before his term expires in the May.
His remarks were followed last week by the announcement that China’s Tsinghua Unigroup would seek to purchase stakes in Siliconware Precision Industries Co and MediaTek — two key semiconductor firms. [FULL STORY]
