A Comparison with Taiwan Semiconductor International, Vol. Abstract Similar to China, Taiwan also was a relative latecomer in the IC arena. However, since the early 1980s, when Taiwan began to develop its semiconductor industry with active entrepreneurial and government support, Taiwan has made great achievements both in IC production and technology, leaving China far behind. Although Taiwan has set up many component assembly plants in China but has not directly invested in IC fabrication there.
Political reasons block high-tech investment from Taiwan.
However, the entry of WTO by both sides will potentially change this situation. This paper presents a compairon in IC industry between Taiwan and China, and discusses future investment from Taiwan in its mainland counterpart.