> In the past they could get enough of the right people to move to China as they did with OLED.
TSMC was founded by a "returnee" as well. Obviously he and his family were rather anti-communist (his father was a ROC official) so he fled from mainland China to Hongkong then the US during the Chinese Civil War.
He built a career at TI then returned to China (Taiwan) and founded TSMC when the government was investing in the development of hitech industries. [1]
There are quite a few similar examples on both sides (communists and nationalists). For example, and that's quite a twist of history, the 'father' of the PRC missile and space program was an MIT professor, Caltech professor, co-founder of JPL and was even involved in project Manhattan... Then he returned to mainland China in 1955 [2].
These days there are many more mainland Chinese in the West and Taiwan who work in the semiconductor industry and it's not uncommon for them to return to mainland China to take key positions.
There is no doubt that they'll catch up. The only question is how fast.
Qian Xuesen was stripped of his security clearance in 1950, as a result of the Red Scare, meaning he couldn't work on his areas of expertise any more. He tried to leave the US, but was arrested on his way out and kept under house arrest for 5 years. That's the thanks he got for helping found the US rocketry program, so when he was released, he founded China's rocketry program.
TSMC was founded by a "returnee" as well. Obviously he and his family were rather anti-communist (his father was a ROC official) so he fled from mainland China to Hongkong then the US during the Chinese Civil War. He built a career at TI then returned to China (Taiwan) and founded TSMC when the government was investing in the development of hitech industries. [1]
There are quite a few similar examples on both sides (communists and nationalists). For example, and that's quite a twist of history, the 'father' of the PRC missile and space program was an MIT professor, Caltech professor, co-founder of JPL and was even involved in project Manhattan... Then he returned to mainland China in 1955 [2].
These days there are many more mainland Chinese in the West and Taiwan who work in the semiconductor industry and it's not uncommon for them to return to mainland China to take key positions.
There is no doubt that they'll catch up. The only question is how fast.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Chang [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Xuesen