The Straits Times
Date: Sep 5, 2018

An Elpida DRAM chip, pictured in Taipei, on March 17, 2010. China’s semiconductor plans accelerated this year after the United States banned sales of chips to the Chinese phone vendor ZTE.PHOTO: REUTERS

TAIPEI (REUTERS) – A huge pay rise, eight free trips home a year and a heavily subsidised apartment. It was a dream job offer that a Taiwanese engineer simply could not refuse.

A veteran of Taiwan’s top-tier chipmakers, including United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), the engineer took up the offer from a Chinese state-backed chipmaker last year and now oversees a small team at a wafer foundry in eastern China.

The engineer joined a growing band of senior Taiwan professionals working in China’s booming and fast-developing semiconductor industry.

Attracting such talent from Taiwan has become a key part of an effort by China to put the industry into overdrive and reduce the country’s dependence on overseas firms for the prized chips that power everything from smartphones to military satellites.
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