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Morris Chang: the 'King' of Taiwanese Chipmakers
DeepDarkSky writes "This is a general interest story in the NY Times about Morris Chang - the founder and chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor - and the dynamics of semiconductor manufacturing in Taiwan, and how the earthquakes a while back affected it. Since Taiwan is the leading manufacturer of chips, with Intel, Motorola, and IBM (also Transmeta, as I vaguely recall in the press releases) all having chips manufactured in Taiwan, I thought this would be an interesting read.
More significantly, also in the NY Times, another story about the U.S. House of Representatives voting to strengthen military ties with Taiwan. Perhaps they are all too aware of the U.S.'s (and the world's) dependence on Taiwan's chip manufacturing prowess (reminded by the earthquakes) and are eager to protect this source against China?" (free NYT reg. req.)
And the American's aren't the world's greatest imperialists these days? How about incursions, ostensibly for the purposes of "justice, liberation and the good old American way" into Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua and now scratching that old sore, Cuba. How about trade imperialism where your cigarettes and hazardous wastes are forced down the throats of developing nations with the threat of trade sanctions. Not to mention the rampant consumption of the world's environmental resources to fuel the growth of your fat white asses. How about foreign aid to poverty stricken African nations with the condition that they adopt birth control programs? You can keep your greaseburger guzzling white trash culture as far as I'm concerned.
Relative to this, what exactly have the Chinese done? Sure, the Tibet situation is to be frowned upon. But talk to much and it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
-t.
Assuming China doesn't just bomb the shit out of Taiwan, it looks like they'd get their asses kicked.
Judging from some of the postings on this subject, I think you don't understand why Taiwan has become a huge manufacturer of computer parts.
Remember the old days when "Made in Taiwan" was considered cheap and poor quality? Well, because the government in Taiwan wanted to get away from that image, they heavily invested in the one industry that will bring them into the 21st Century: electronics.
The result is obvious--if you open up a desktop computer, look at how much of the computer is made in Taiwan. I'll almost say that the motherboard, the majority of the surface-mounted chips on the motherboard and peripheral cards, the memory modules, the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive, the CPU heatsink/fan and the system case are made in Taiwan. Only the hard disk drive and CPU are not likely to be made in Taiwan. Think about it: if your x86-based computer is using an Abit, FIC, Gigabyte, Supermicro or Tyan motherboard, they are all made in Taiwan.
This is a tribute to the of the people of Taiwan, whose hard work has turned Taiwan into the one of the most influential countries in the computer industry.
By the way, the People's Republic of China are no slouches in the computer industry, either. They have a very popular (and well-made) brand of computers named Legend that runs the Chinese versions of Windows 95/98 and Linux.
Don't forget that one of the most popular commercial distributions of Linux--TurboLinux (formerly Pacific Hi-Tech)--originated in Taiwan.
In short, stop sounding like those protesters at the WTO Summit last year. The xenophobia doesn't work in a world where trade is a fact of life.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
> Furthermore, certain Senators have indicated that they will advise the President to veto the bill if it ever reaches his desk my mistake, the President's National Security Advisors, not senators. just read today's article in the NY Times.
NO CARRIER
What's with your bold you weird fucker?
Those things aren't left out of low-level American history books for political reasons. They are left out because the people who write history texts (and most other texts) in America are stupid. Some fools think getting an Education degree, with a few rinky-dinky history classes thrown in, qualifies you to teach history and author texts on the subject.
When I'm singing a ballad and a pair of underwear lands on my head, I hate that. It really kills the mood.
-Tom Jones
The Israelis have been hopelessly outnumbered by the Arabs for 50 years......they also don't have the Taiwan Straits protecting them. If the Taiwanese fight like they have some balls, the Mainland will have to change their "one-child" birth control policy. BTW, they got their asses handed to them when they when up against the Vietnamese 3rd string back in 1979....what makes you think it would be any different today?
The US has many firms, but less all the time due to mergers, that are deemed too politically important to be allowed to fail.
Chrysler was bailed out once upon a time. Citibank, just a few years ago.
This is a danger of the new wave of Mega-Mergers that's never mentioned. Funny how the press STILL paints the '80s as the decade of greed and Mega-Mergers while the '90s and now the '00s (the oughts?) has REALLY seen a dramatic increase in huge mergers, CEO salaries and growing disparity between haves and have-nots.
Don't be fooled. The Media likes Clinton and gives him a pass on this stuff. If Reagan had been president when this was happening every TV News Show would have had nothing BUT how the economy is being manipulated for the benefit of the super-rich.
-Jordan Henderson
The Taiwanese have a significant aircraft production capability-they designed and flew the Ching-Kuo indigenuous fighter successfully; and they produce their own missiles, too. On the other hand; Chinese Air Force is equipped with mostly outdated equipment; which is only changing recently with the addition of Su-27s to the inventory. Still, the majority of Chinese Air Force is Shenyang F-7s (Mig-21 variant) and F-6s (Mig-19 variant). Where little is known about the capabilities of the sepcimens in Chinese service; export versions of these fighters have not proven to be good performers.
The Taiwanese definitely have the better technology in their armed forces. In their previous aerial clashes; ROCAF's kill rates were phenomenal. I would tend to say that the situation is much like Israel and the Arab nations: Israel has kicked, and will indefinitely continue to kick, the asses of any combination of Arab air forces imaginable. Similarly Taiwan has proven to have an advantage in the skies; it is unfortunately a different matter on sea and land.
--
BluetoothCentral.com
A site for everything Bluetooth. Coming soon.
Zigbee Central: A Zigbee weblog
Memory -> Taiwan -> Taiwan Earthquake
Chip -> Taiwan -> Taiwan Security Enhancement Act
Somehow Slashdot has a tendency to squeeze in anything related to Taiwan. And all the racist remarks whenever any articles related to China is posted.. It's such an enjoyment.
Seriously, is there a way to kill any stories which have the word "China" in? Sorry, I'm tired of hearing all the senseless ramblings from those hardly know anything about China. It's more painful than the last time I heard racist slurs thrown at me on the street (in the US). At least, I could assume those individuals are semi-intelligent.
Congress only sets broad budgets for the DOJ, not individual activities within the DOJ. It can't allocate how much is spent on Anti-Trust. That's an executive function. I think you'll find that the DOJ has RECORD budgets lately. If the Anti-Trust division is short of funds, it is Clinton who is starving the Anti-Trust budgets.
You don't seem to understand what happened with Citibank/Traveler's. The DOJ, at some expense, actually went out of their way to hand Citibank an exemption to current law. Had they just prosecuted based on the current law they could have easily recovered the cost of prosecution in fines.
I'm no Libertarian. Neither am I a Republican, actually. I'm just pointing out the injustice of how Clinton gets a pass on policies in the Press for which Reagan would have been on a skewer.
We are probably philosophically much alike in that I'm for fiscal responsibility (like balanced budgets, only made possible by the Republican Congress, even though the Press continues to hand the credit to Clinton) and, as you can tell, I'm quite wary of corporate strength and concerned about the rights of individuals.
-Jordan Henderson
Title: New Test for Lyme Disease.
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Source: Journal of Environmental Health, Jul/Aug99, Vol. 62 Issue 1, p53, 2/5p
AN: 2295037
ISSN: 0022-0892
Note: Alemany Library does NOT hold this title locally.
Database: Academic Search Elite
Print: Click here to mark for print.
Text Available: Full Page Image
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[Go To Citation]
Best Part
Section: EH Update
NEW TEST FOR LYME DISEASE
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection. The infectious agent is the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, and humans are infected primarily through tick bites. As the most common insectborne infectious disease in North America, Lyme disease is a significant public health concern. Symptoms of Lyme disease vary. The first manifestation is a large, red rash at the site of the tick bite. Flulike symptoms may follow. The disease may affect the nervous system, and, in later stages, may be manifested by persistent arthritis. Diagnosing Lyme disease can be challenging. The symptoms of flu, fatigue, and joint pain are similar to those of a number of other conditions.
A new blood test now identifies Lyme disease within an hour at a doctor's office or other point of care. Other tests for Lyme disease rely on laboratory analysis, which delays results. With the new test, doctors can make a quicker probable diagnosis and start treatment with antibiotics immediately.
The PreVue B. burgdorferi Antibody Detection Assay is designed as a first step in diagnosis of Lyme disease. Two-stage testing is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); positive results must be confirmed with a Western blot test done by a laboratory.
Made by Chembio Diagnostic Systems of Medford, New York, the new test uses antigenic proteins developed by recombinant DNA techniques rather than the whole-cell B. burgdorferi preparations used in current laboratory tests. Antigenic proteins developed by recombinant DNA techniques allow for more accuracy
FDA's clearance of the PreVue test was based on results of clinical studies conducted by the manufacturer at clinics and physician offices. PreVue accurately detected Lyme disease in 72 percent of one group of 120 blood samples and 95 percent of another group of 42 blood samples. The test incorrectly identified Lyme disease in three percent of 100 blood samples in which it was not present. This "false-positive" rate is similar to that of laboratory tests for Lyme disease.
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Copyright of Journal of Environmental Health is the property of National Environmental Health Association and its content may not be copied without the copyright holder's express written permission except for the print or download capabilities of the retrieval software used for access. This content is intended solely for the use of the individual user.
Source: Journal of Environmental Health, Jul/Aug99, Vol. 62 Issue 1, p53, 2/5p.
Item Number: 2295037
Politically incorrect in the sense that it's messing around with intricate relatioship between two other "countries"; and that it hurts the feelings of a lot of people.
It's almost like us saying that we support the independency of North Ireland and deplore every act of the British Government in the North Ireland as an act to supress the Irish people.
Is it that hard to understand?
No, I didn't do it. But if I had moderation point and I hadn't put any article on, I might have done it mysekf. It is frustrating to see all the trolls (and unfortunately, some semi-intelligent posts) on the other side. So, what the heck! Let's see something opposite got moderated up - just for the fun of it :P.
The British government along with those of Scotland and Northern Ireland all have large offices in Taipei trying to bring in Taiwanese investment and factories......remember the scene "Life in the 3rd World" (Yorkshire) in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life"? Rather poetic, isn't it?
If Britney Spears because President, I'm applying to be an intern.
Very true.
Pride is dangerous. It makes people do stupid, irrational things. Like the idiots who engage in retribution driving after being cut off in traffic -- they don't accomplish anything for themselves and the endanger everyone around them.
Should you live your life tiptoeing around other people's personal pride, or run your foreign policy around other people's national pride? Well, in principle you shouldn't have to, but only a fool would not take the possibilities into account. Remember WW I. China might very well decide to kill the goose the laid the golden egg, and possibly drag the entire world into war, and their leaders would even strengthen their political position as they lead their country into hell -- at least until they exceeded the people's endurance. And the Chinese people have tremendous endurance.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Try designing an F-16, an M-60 without Autocad.
Granted, we designed equivalents for WWII without pentium-class desktops, but we won the war because we (read:Allies) created the computing power necessary to crack Enigma.
_______________________________
I would agree with you. Many Americans I know are ashamed about a many great things regarding our country. Our leaders have no moral or ethical constraints, we go around blowing the shit out small defenseless countries (Bosnia) and give crap to others who try to do the same thing (Chechnya/Tibet/etc).
As far as the trade/imperialist idea of shoving bad things down other countries throats (such as cigarattes) the American people also suffer from it. Advertising cannot be escaped, phone, snail mail, email, radio, TV, its everywhere, and it invades our senses like a something rotten...
We are talking about 3 seperate things:
1. American Government (yuck)
2. Massive INTERNATIONAL corporations (double yuck) ( I happen to work for ING, a Dutch financial group of companies which has more money than most countries)
3. American People (most of whom are decent and just want to be left alone).
3a. I would also add that most People anywhere are decent and just want to be left alone.
Im sure you heard about the demonstrations at Seattle re WTO. We dont like it either.
You mentioned giving food to starving Africans, but only if they quit having kids. Whats wrong with that? Am I responsible for the poor resource management of someone in some other country? If some people or country cant feed their people, am OBLIGATED to help? No I sure as hell am not. I WILL help, because I WANT TO, but I dont want to have to help twice as many people the next time.
You dont like handouts with conditions? Then dont ask for em.
This brings up another subject which chaps my ass.
The current peace process going on re Isreal.
Isreal seems to think the US should give them about $16Billion dollars in military (including Stealth Technology) and financial aid, or they won't accept the peace process.
Jews and Arabs have been fighting since the time of Abraham, and they are going to keep fighting until the end of time. Why the hell should I(yes me, my taxes) cough up cash so two little spoiled brats will stop fighting and play nice?
Piss on them! Let em blow each other hell if they want, I am tired of working my ass off so the rest of the world can get free rides.
By the way, my "fat grease burger white ass" as so you eloquently put it happens to provide financial aid to 6 people...mostly children in developing nations. They get an education, decent food and a sense that someone cares. Again, because I want too, not because I am obligated to.
Besides, where do you come from? Nothing bad ever happens where you are? Your government has never done anything bad to anyone? No attrocites? No genocide? No forced relocations?
Anonymous Coward indeed.
-- A Human Being is nothing more than mobile CO2 factory. Bow to the plants.
No country I know of is afraid to criticize US trade policy when it's heavy-handed or unfair. Do you have an example in mind?
In fact, I do. A short while ago [read: months ago], Micron (and a few others, I believe) began dumping some of their excess PC100/PC133 chips into Taiwan's economy, thus *really* screwing w/ the low prices there. Taiwan, in turn, turned to either the US's Trade Dept. or WTO for a judgement on the RAM dumping practice. Since then, I haven't heard anything about the outcome.
Pride is dangerous. It makes people do stupid, irrational things.
Case in point, Pat Buchannan(sp?) has his whole campaign based around national pride (ala Hitler) because "those Yellow @#$$es keep shoving their chopsticks down our throats." First of all, I believe the US produces quite a bit of chopsticks for the foreign market w/ ashwood leftover from deforestation projects. Second, he forgets the exports others consume (airliners, chip-making machinery/equipment, grains, McDonald's/KFC/etc., Hollywood movies, and a whole lot more). But then again, I never expected these Fire-eaters to actually get any attention/votes (unfortunately, I also forgot about the condition of the American education system).
Eh, considering that the original poster does seem to have the facts somewhat backwards, I'd have to give him a little credit w/ regards to the KMT gov't. You'd probably never read this in American textbooks (due to political reasons), the KMT did commit some attrocities on those Taiwanese who were on the island before they arrived. Often these involved the military abducting civilians opposed to Nationalist rule and some were never to be heard from again. Quite sad. What's even sadder is that the US never confronted the KMT about it (much like the US w/ Japan's activities, both toward neighboring Asian nations as well as American soldiers).
Modern fighters are airborne anti-aircraft missile launch platforms first, and dogfighters second. The MiG-21 is a reasonable dogfighter, but that doesn't matter if it's been swept from the sky by a missile before ever reaching cannon range. And a crew properly trained to take advantage of that ordinance and avionics advantage can make a single F-16 the equal of four MiG-21's (if it could carry more ordinance the advantage could be even more).
I don't know the state of Taiwan's air force, whether they have the up-to-date training and ordinance to take advantage of the platform, and the numbers advantage definitely goes to the PRC, but to state that the MiG-21 is somehow "on par" with the F-16 is a joke.
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
Mao made Hitler look like a humanitarian.
So, you're implying that it's worse to kill your own people than it is to murder someone else's people? I'll make no excuses for Mao, but the "Great Leap Forward" was about industrial progress, IIRC, and the Cultural Rev. was the one responsible for the murders/killings (note that most deaths occured due to the famine that took place whereas the murders were against the wealthy/intellectuals. So, whereas Hitler intended to murder 10 million people, Mao only intended to murder those with the power (very concentrated pop.) to overthrow him.
...and thank god they did, or a large portion of China's history might have been lost. You forget that not long after the revolution, the Red Guard took it upon itself to discredit and destroy anything related to the old order -- including places, people, and said historical relics.
BTW, Most important among these historical relics are China's imperial treasures. It was the Nationalists who packed up these treasures during WWII to protect them from the Japanese, and again after the civil war to protect them from the Communists. The imperial treasures are important not only as priceless examples of art and history, but as symbols of Imperial rule that at one time lent legitimacy to whoever posessed them.
In 1996 they were shown in the US, where they were exhibited in a tour titled, "The Splendours of Imperial China". The collection visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
Hello All!
Ok, so I am a bit biased, because I live in Taiwan. Not as a Taiwan national, but as an expat who has spent 8 years here living it out here on this little island. I have toured about 2,000 factories in all on this "little island", of which a good 15 to 20 were fabs or tech firms.
Taiwan is a great place, you can come here and just look up some factory, call them up and visit. You can take a look at an 8" fab, or a DVD-RAM line, or a PCB maker, or a plain old plastic injection molding factory with a phone call and a nice attitude. Taiwan is a manufacturing powerhouse, not only in the solid state industry, but in just about everything you can think of.
Sure, there is gov't money behind industry here, but is that so different from any other country in the world? No, the US has Boing, Germany has Mercedes, Japan has NEC, Korea has Samsung, and on and on and on. Government is run by business in the world and so what?
Morris is a visionary because he brought new vision and a new business focus for Taiwan's great entreprenurial spirit. He took the best of what he saw as opportunity at Texus Instruments and brought it back to Taiwan with him, in the form of a dream and a vision. He became the leader in the race to make Taiwan the leader ahead of Korea, Asia, and yes, Japan as a technology manufacturing foundry.
This is nothing new. Taiwan did the same thing with petrochemicals in the late 70's and 80's. Taiwan did the same thing with steel. Taiwan is a very special place in the world, because of its flexibility and extreme ability to move markets through the niches.
Taiwan will drive world prices of anything down, because it is a world supplier. Through this great service that it does to the world, it gets rich. Yes, Taiwan is very rich indeed, all becuase of its wonderful flexibility and willingness to change.
If Taiwan were not flexible, you would still see a plethora of textile factories here instead of the numerous fabs and science parks one sees popping up all over the island now adays!
What does Taiwan lack in the solid state field?
1. design
2. brand marketing
3. upstream suppliers (ie: fab equipment manufacturers, as it all comes from the U.S. and Europe)
This could change as well, as the industry is really just a baby when compared to the U.S. and Europe.
Ciao,
Real men don't need signitures!!!
Moderate it in -100:
NYTIMES NO LONGER REQUIRES REGISTRATIONS YOU IDIOTIC MODERATORS!!!!!
The currect Taiwan Administration once ruled the entire China. Sepcifically, from 1911-1949. If you don't believe me, take a look at the Chinese national flag and national anthem during this period and you will know that it's exactly the same as those of Taiwanese today. As a matter of fact, a huge chunk of Taiwan population is moved from China during 1947-1949, right after WWII.
I can tell you, that Taiwanese look more like Chinese than many actual Chinese people, such as those close to Turkey boundary.
Taiwanese would love to be Chinese again if China is as great as America. We are the same race, we speak the same language, we look indistinguishable. And, the most important factor is that Taiwan is too small of an island to build ANYTHING of a big scale. We cannot build cars, for example. We can only build chips and little stuff like PCs because of the resource contraint. That is why lots of Taiwanese bussiness invest captical in China before the stupid Chinese govn't tighten up the policy. But, who would want to be ruled by communist these days? As a Taiwanese, I feel that the Communist govenment is poor, corrupt, violent, and most of all, DUMB.
On the scale of 0 to 9, if 0 means completely capitalist, such as Hong Kong, 9 means completely socialist, then the U.S.A would sit around 3.5, Taiwan will be aroung 1.5. China will be maybe 8. After 50 years of such difference, the idealogy is too different for a Taiwanese to even carry a conversation with a Chinese.
After I moved to the US, I started to hang out with Chinese, and my viewpoint changed. Chinese have things that Taiwanese would love to have - resources. This is the same reason that Japanese islanders invaded China during World War II. Chinese also need Taiwanese for things that Taiwanese are very good at, such as human capital- Taiwanese are highly educated, with zero illiteracy. Unfortunately the political situation in China makes it impossible for ANY country to coorporate with China.
For the past 50 years, Taiwanese govn't has always claimed that Taiwan wants to be back as China--peacefully, and after Chinese start to develop some democracy. But the wait is too long; Chinese govn't seems hopeless. Not much progress is made during the past 50 years and we don't think we will see much progress in the next 50. (Which is the truth that my Red Chinese friend despise.)
One thing is clear: the day Taiwanese declare independence will be the day Chinese declares war. Some Taiwanese wants to fight, but I don't. Me and my families would prefer to enjoy good economy and peace.
Perhaps, but it ismostly a Republican Congress which have passed the laws that made this possible. With the loss of the Presidential line-item veto, the White House has less control over national policy than before.
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
"The more Taiwan relies on the US for defence, the less willing they will be to complain about the US's protectionist actions that favour its domestic chip manufacturing business."
I believe these ideas are the issues that fuel the Tiawanese nationalists. Because of their current situation, they need to play the damsel in distress for protection. If Tiawan was legitimately recognized as an independent sovereign state, it can then receive diplomatic recognition in international organizations.
In my opinion, having some legitimate global representation should be the primary goal (above a formal separation from the mainland). The problem of course is that any attempt at the former causes China to bitch about the latter.
As it stands, the only channel through which Tiawan can be heard is through it's corporate/economic avenues; and as Jon Perterson alludes to, these veins can be easily pinched as well.
*I apologize for any hallucinations resulting from my mixed metaphors*
An obvious TROLL marked +1 (interesting) by a crack-smoking moderator.
I take the politically incorrect view that Taiwan and China are two seperate countries. Taiwan has never been ruled by China's communist government, nor China by Taiwan's current administration (who are very different, thankfully, to the Kuomintang who originally set up shop there). Therefore the rest is merely hot air. There is no state of war between China and Taiwan, despite much rattling of sabres, nor any justification for a war beginning - it would cost China a lot more, not only in terms of its international standing, than it would be worth to invade. Thankfully. Therefore China's objections to the arms imports are meaningless, because they do not practically disadvantage China as a nation in any way whatsoever. And if China wants to join the WTO, it had better not object too strenuously to what is in effect an exercise in free trade.
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Salman Rushdie
Right now there is, quite frankly, nothing worse for the US government to be doing than to be strengthening military ties with Taiwan. You must remember that this is a rogue province masquerading as a state, run by a bunch of despotic capitalists escaping the Communist armies. With them, they took all of China's gold reserves and a significant portion of its historical relics. They were defending a merciless, corrupt, inhuman system, that has since been replaced by the modern efficieny of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought. Supporting this province only shows your wish to suppress the working class and grind them into the dirt like the landlords did before the Revolution in 1949.
We can't be supporting a "state" that stands for what Taiwan stands for. We must break ties with them and reaffirm our support of the Beijing government in order to demonstrate our commitment to stamping out imperialism, ending exploitation of the poor, and bringing everyone closer to the workers' paradise.
The House vote just reiterated long-standing US policy that discourages China from invading Taiwan. This commitment has ideological, not economic roots. It has more to do with halting what once feared to be a militaristic expansion of Mao's Revolution off the continent. The vote has much more to do with continued Chinese military exercises, saber-rattling, and trash-talking directly across the sea from Taiwan.
When I'm singing a ballad and a pair of underwear lands on my head, I hate that. It really kills the mood.
-Tom Jones
Thank you troll.
... untoward with regard to Taiwan.
Trollish as you are, you do bring up one point:
Who gives a flying fuck about China's lost or wounded pride?
The PRC does, and the US is trying its best to ensure that they don't make anybody give a flying fuck (or more) by doing anything
I don't have a link offhand, but National Public Radio (NPR) News reported last night that the bill that overwhemingly (the vote was something like 300+ to 70) passed in the House of Representatives (re: incresed military support of Taiwan) will almost certainly be thrown out when it reaches the Senate. Furthermore, certain Senators have indicated that they will advise the President to veto the bill if it ever reaches his desk. From a purely political point of view the bill is more of a "slap in the face" to the PRC in retaliation for the recent events regarding the Los Alamos fiasco, than a real effort at assisting Taiwan. Furthermore, even if this was a "real" bill aimed at beefing up the Taiwanese military, you must realize that the PRC's air superiority over the Taiwan Strait is nearly 25 to 1 versus Taiwanese forces. PRC has manufacturing capabilities of their fighters and bombers, while Taiwan has a tiny fleet of outdated F5-E interceptors and a few slightly less outdated F-16's. Taiwan also does not have manufacturing material or capability. This is without mentioning ground forces, for which I don't remember the numbers offhand. So basically, unless you give Taiwan tactical nuclear weapons (bad idea for obvious reasons) or other weapons of mass destruction, there really isn't much you can do realistically to beef up the Taiwanese military. In a practical sense the Taiwanese military is used more for anti-smuggling operations and to protect fishermen near international water boundaries by Japan, the Phillipines, and the PRC.
NO CARRIER
He reads that article from that guy at ZDnet too much can't remember that guy's name ATM.
Your post reminded me of how the US pretty much made GM and Ford its national champions. The extent of the favortism extended as far as how there was some rumor that some CIA agents were asked to commit espionage against the Japanese auto industry. Funny thing is that the spies refused to spy for companies. Of course, the US auto industry had to take a serious hit economically before they finally improved the quality of their cars (not to mention that one Asian (Chinese?) kid was killed/murdered because a bunch of idiots thought he was Japanese).
The M-60 was designed alooooooooong time before Autocad.
I never registered but for the last few days the NYT site has been letting me in anyway. I dunno if it's a bug or a quiet change of policy-- I hope the latter.
Taiwan's status is like South Korea vs. North Korea, except that Taiwan vs. mainland China is not evenly divided. Taiwan is not ruled by mainland China so the status quo is in the best interests of most people in the world. These who want to start a war and think "Americans shall come to our aid and fight and die for us" are irresponsible and shall be treated as liers.
Free Software: the software by the people, of the people and for the people. Develop! Share! Enhance! Enjoy!
Really? That's fascinating. Now, which laws specifically have made this possible.
What needs to happen is that there should be oversight by the FTC and the DOJ on the Mega-Mergers. If Clinton cared a bit, you'd hear him preaching from the Bully Pulpit about how Congress is allowing this to happen.
There's even the amazing case of the Citibank/Traveler's Merger that was illegal at the time that it was started. They started doing business together while the Banking regulations CLEARLY forbade these sorts of conglomerations of banking and insurance services.
The US Federal Reserve and the DOJ (both under the Executive Branch) gave them a waiver.
Congress later approved a change in the Banking regulations that made this Merger legal, and Clinton signed it into law.
Oh yes, that Presidential line-item veto that the Republican Congress voted into law in 1997 and the Supreme Court found unconstitutional in 1998?
Give me a BREAK! Reagan was BEGGING for a line-item veto for YEARS to get the profligate spending of the Democratic Congress under rein (the real cause of the huge deficits for which Reagan is blamed, profligate spending, not tax cuts, tax revenue nearly doubled in the '80s). The Republicans in a major feat of bi-partisanship, you know that bi-partisanship that the press will tell you the Republicans NEVER display, approved a line-item veto for Clinton.
So, today Clinton has pretty much exactly those powers that Reagan, the same powers he had in 1995, and 1996 and since 1998 and it's because of the loss of the line-item veto that the White House has less control over national policy than before? That line-item veto that was in place for about a YEAR!?
That's an interesting read of history.
Clinton preaches about every other potential danger to the people. How come he doesn't recommend new legislation or direct the DOJ to tie up these Mega-Mergers? Why? Because he's the biggest friend the big multinationals has ever had.
Democrats are amazing. If it's the good economy, well that's ALL Clinton. If it's anything bad, it's the Republican Congress. And the press is complicit in the lies.
Anybody hear about the 107 months of economic recovery? The longest good economy ever? Next month it will be 108 months, that's 9 YEARS of good economy. Clinton has been in for just over 8 YEARS.
Remember 1992? The worst economy in 50 years that Clinton told us about and the Press never challenged him on? According to the news today, we were in a good, recovering economy for the last 10 months of the Bush Presidency. Where was the Press then?
-Jordan Henderson
Very funny
Well, those are all very good points. However, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't federal budgets a form of legislation? Don't they call them spending bills? Doesn't Congress (for instance the House Appropriations Commitee) have significant influence on the budget? Does the Republican Party have a controlling majority in most of these budget-related committees?
Clinton's executive staff theoretically sets policy but Congress controls the purse strings that allows those policies to be implemented, or not.
I must admit I can't back this up, but I seem to have heard as part of the whole DOJ/MS trial hoopla that the budget for the DOJ's Anti-trust department was stretched thin these days. Perhaps there's also a budget-caused staff shortage for the departments that should be overseeing CityBank style Mega-Mergers?
Consider that it is a Republican Congress that passed the DMCA, and has consistently resisted election spending limits. They generally tend to be more receptive than the Democrats towards legislation that favours corporate lobby groups over individuals. Historically, laissez-faire capitalism has found more proponents in the Republican Party than with the Democrats.
Look at how much flak is hitting the DOJ because of the MS lawsuit (and who it is coming from), even though they have a strong evidence trail of questionable business practices being supported by top-tier MS executives. I have a lot of respect for many Microsoft employees, but I have no respect for the shady business practices exposed by the DOJ during trial.
If Clinton cared a bit, you'd hear him preaching from the Bully Pulpit about how Congress is allowing this to happen.
Agreed. Perhaps he used to place (aborted) health care reforms or other issues higher in priority. I've gotten the impression that politics is a bit like a game, where you only have so many political points to spread around. If you try to spread them around too much, they're spread too thin and you don't get much done. I'm not supporting the tradeoffs they made, just acknowledging that they had to make some.
Perhaps after knowledge of his pecadillos came out, Clinton thought it might be a good idea to lie low until the end of his term, rather than try to take on the House of Representatives when he had just handed them a dumptruck of mud to throw at him.
Living in British Columbia, I certainly wish we had more fiscal responsibility in our government. It's too bad that it is hard to find a party that believes in fiscal responsibility as well as a good balance between the rights of individuals, corporate strength, and the collective good. Libertarians seem to have learned the lessons of the 20th Century well, but seem to want to repeat those of the 19th century instead.
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
What the heck does "modern efficiency of Marxism-Lenninism and Mao Zedong thought" mean anyway?
Asimov really had it all down, didn't he. Protecting yourself against your big neighbors by making them dependant on your technological exports is straight out The Foundation's traders period.
OK, it's not all that novel an idea, but it struck me in this context for some reason.
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We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.
The USA has to protect Tawain and its vital supplies of cheap vibrators so its women can at last be satisfied with small dicked yanks.
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User had a thaught - death penalty
TSMC makes *all* the graphics chips for 3dfx and Nvidia. This company controls key component manufacturing for the whole PC industry.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
The Taiwanese Air Force has about 160 F-16's and around 50 Mirage 2000's. They also have Apache Attack helicopters and yes, some F-5's. Let's not forget their Pershing and Patriot missiles. The Taiwanese developed nuclear weapons at the Chung Shan Institute of Technology in the mid 1980's but had to close the program due to pressure from the US. Ground forces are probably around 500,000 (add the reserves and you've got alot of troops).
One should remember that the US avoided an assault on Taiwan during WWII because of the difficulty an invasion would have faced (landing beaches are few and are poor at best....most of the island is VERY mountainous).
Its exactly this kind of crony capitalism that led to the crash of the Tiger Economies. In the UK we dropped the "national champion" approach to industrial policy when Mrs Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, and we are much better off as a result.
The problem with national champions is that they know they are too politically important to be allowed to fail. As a result they don't worry about running up losses because they know the government will bail them out. Sure, they can sometimes be success stories, but frequently they become economic millstones. UK readers who are old enough may remember the old British Leyland car makers. They were the national champions of UK industry during the 60s and 70s. It didn't take the unions there long to cotton on: the government wouldn't close them down or insist on layoffs because of the bad publicity, and hence they could strike for higher pay, shorter hours, or whatever else they wanted with complete disregard for anything else. BL became a byword for industrial strife, and the cars they made were famously bad.
Incidentally, while BL was destroyed by its unions, they are not the only thing that destroys national champions. The management can do just the same. Their primary cash flow comes from the government rather than their customers, and the government will still be there even if the customers go away. Hence their primary goal becomes pleasing the government rather than their customers. This problem is masked during the boom years because the company does not need to make unpopular layoffs, pay cuts or other measures. But when things turn down again, the management concentrate hard on extracting money from the government instead of becoming more competitive.
Remember the film "The Italian Job", a gold heist in Italy where three BL Minis were used as getaway cars? The film studio approached BL and asked if they could have the Minis in exchange for the valuable publicity. The BL middle-management thought about this and then turned them down. The reason was basically ass-covering. Saying "no" was the safe option. Saying "yes" could lead to Questions In Parliment about taxpayers money being wasted giving away cars to film companies. The extra sales that would result from people seeing the Mini as the perfect city car were irrelevant in this calculation.
Sooner or later, Taiwan Semiconductor is going to go the same way as British Leyland.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
I don't know if anyone has noticed but a lot of taiwanese companies have big factories on the mainland China. Including the one I work for. In fact our company's biggest factory resides in China. And yes, we manucfacture computers and all the stuff that come with them, including chips.
Taiwan has never been as bad as the rest of the "Tigers" when it comes to cronyism. Granted, they've been under single-party control since the Nationalists escaped there, but a key differentiating factor in the "crony capitalism" economies is that ownership is concentrated in the hands of the families and friends of the ruling family. Though Taiwan is controlled by a single party, it's not the one-family (like for instance, Indonesia's Suhartos) type of party that is so corruptible. For better or for worse, free-market capitalism is the standard in Taiwan, and the government invests in industries instead of controlling them.
The big difference in Taiwan is that government approaches ownership from a strategic viewpoint, and they aren't investing so much to get family members rich as they are to try and jump-start industries. In Indonesia, Suharto would have pumped $100 million into a chip company and put his nephew in charge. In Taiwan, Morris Chang was able to get the government to invest $100 million in exchange for an ownership stake with the purpose of jump-starting a semicinductor industry. By just about any measure, the effort was a spectacular free-market success. The difference is that in a cronyist system, Chang would have not been concerned with profits - he'd be skimming off the top and not worrying about the details. The Taiwanese semiconductor giants are making profits in a difficult sector of the market - and that's the biggest difference between what happens when government invests in free-market companies versus what happens when government actually owns the company. When the government owns the company, you get Indonesia, Thailand, and the British Leylands of the business world. I'd take the Taiwan approach any day in comparison.
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."