How this leading Taiwanese chip guru made an astonishing U-turn from avid mainland investor to China basher

Robert Tsao is making waves. The founder of United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), Taiwan’s second-largest chip manufacturer, was one of the self-ruled island’s semiconductor gurus to pour money and technology into mainland China two decades ago, upsetting the administration in Taipei at the time. Now he faces Beijing’s ire.

Tsao, 75, has become the industry’s public face of standing up to mainland China, promising in August to donate NT$3 billion (US$100 million) to the island’s defence to fend off a possible attack. In a press conference in Taipei last week, Tsao stood in a blue, bulletproof vest and vowed that he would “never live to see Taiwan become another Hong Kong”.

Tsao’s shift from cherished visitor – he was one of the guests of honour at a symposium hosted by Xiamen University as late as 2010 – to persona non grata on the mainland – comes at a time of rising geopolitical tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and between Washington and Beijing over strategic technology such as semiconductors. The mainland regards the self-ruled island as a renegade province and has threatened to take it back by force if necessary.

According to Tsao’s official biography, he was born in mainland China in 1947 but raised in Taiwan. He has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University and a master’s degree in management science from National Chiao Tung University in 1972. He later joined the Taiwan government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute and was one of the pioneers of Taiwan’s first integrated circuit manufacturing line, which later became UMC in 1980.

Like Richard Chang, who led a group of Taiwanese chip engineers 22 years ago to set up Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), now China’s top chip maker, Tsao was previously seen as a key figure in supporting China’s early chip development, investing millions into HeJian Technology in Suzhou city, which became the mainland’s second-largest foundry.

The deal angered the then Taiwan administration under Chen Shui-bian and Tsao was charged in Taipei with wrongdoing although not convicted of anything. Tsao resigned from UMC in 2005 and later renounced his Taiwan citizenship, migrating to Singapore in 2011.

Tsao kept up good relations with mainland China over the years. As a collector of Chinese antiques, he sold a vase in 2008 for HK$65 million (US$8 million) and donated half of the proceeds to disaster relief in southwestern Sichuan province after the massive earthquake there via Taiwan charity organisations, according to the Chinese News Service, a China news agency.