TSMC founder Morris Chang says China’s semiconductor industry still five years behind despite decades of subsidies

Chang said chip making is a vital industry for Taiwan, with a profound impact on the daily lives of its people, the island’s economy, and national defence

Samsung Electronics remains TSMC’s biggest rival in outsourced wafer fabrication, with South Korea enjoying many of the same advantages as Taiwan, he said

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TSMC founder Morris Chang speaks at a forum hosted by the United Daily News (UDN) Group in Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday, April 21, 2021. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:00pm, 22 Apr 2021Updated: 11:11am, 19 May 2021

In a rare public appearance since retiring nearly three years ago, Morris Chang, the 89-year-old founder of the world’s largest contract chip maker, said China is not yet a competitor in chipmaking and that Taiwan should defend its leadership in semiconductor manufacturing.

Chang, who established Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) in 1987, is seen as the father of Taiwan’s success in the foundry business. At a forum hosted by Economic Daily in Taipei on Wednesday, Chang spoke about separate efforts by China and the US to build up their own chip-making capabilities.

This handout picture taken on September 18, 2020 shows Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen (C) posing for photographs with Keith Krach (L), US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, and Morris Chang, founder of TSMC, at the president residency in Taipei. Photo: AFP

“Mainland China has given out subsidies to the tune of tens of billions of US dollars over the past 20 years but it is still five years behind TSMC,” Chang said. “Its logic chip design capability is still one to two years behind the US and Taiwan. The mainland is still not yet a competitor.”

China had relied heavily on TSMC in the past as its source for advanced chips but is now grooming homegrown champions such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) as the country seeks to achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency amid tensions with the US.

Chang said semiconductor manufacturing is a vital industry for Taiwan, with a profound impact on the daily lives of its people, the island’s economy, and national defence.

“It is also the first industry for which Taiwan has earned a competitive position on the global stage,” he said. “I call on the government, society and TSMC to keep hold of it tightly.”