How Taiwan’s trusty ‘silicon shield’ became its achilles heel

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In a bid to become economically vital, the fledgling democracy poured its resources into the semiconductor industry. While countries such as Japan and the United States chose to focus on software, Taiwan “picked a winner” and focused on hardware. Hsinchu, then little more than an industrial car park, became the foundation. A deliberate spending program at the Hsinchu Science Park spawned a raft of technology companies, one of which would emerge as TSMC. Deliberately, the Taiwanese built schools, universities, suppliers and research labs within walking distance of the company facilities. “Workers never needed to leave,” Scott Huang, associate researcher at...