(This is the second article in a two-part series on the US-China semiconductor battle, and where India stands in it. Here is the first part)

When Chandrayaan 3 landed on the moon on August 23 last year, there was one place in Mohali that was particularly jubilant: the government-run Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL). It was a personal win for SCL’s engineers, the unsung heroes who for months worked on producing a wide variety of semiconductors critical for controlling and commanding the mission. The spacecraft used chips to enable communication with Earth and navigate its way to the landing destination, using sensors and cameras to transmit data and messages.

Mohali’s SCL is India’s only well-known chip-making foundry. It began production in 1984, three years before the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing company, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), was founded.

Today, however, while TSMC produces 90% of the world’s most sophisticated and advanced semiconductors or microchips, churning out the most valued 5-nanometer (nm) chips in size, SCL can make only legacy chips of 100 nm and above, which are obviously many generations old. TSMC’s annual turnover exceeded $70 billion last year, far more than the SCL’s meagre $5 million. And while TSMC’s clients are some of the world’s leading tech firms, such as Apple, AMD and Nvidia, among SCL’s top clients is just ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). TSMC’s factories are state-of-the-art; SCL is in dire need of modernisation and upgradation.

India’s Tough Luck

SCL could have been TSMC’s largest rival if it were not for one very unfortunate incident, which pushed India back to the semiconductor dark ages. On February 27, 1989, a mysterious fire broke out in the plant, destroying most of the facilities. To date, no one knows if it was an act of sabotage or an accident. The factory later rose from the ashes, but by then, it was left far behind in the race.

Dan Hutcheson of Canada’s TechInsights company, one of the industry’s global voices, surprised me when he said he had been monitoring the Indian chip industry since the 1970s. “I have seen India strive for this industry my entire career. There have been only failures. It is important for India to be successful now.” Dan is not wrong, as India’s semiconductor history is made up of a series of broken dreams and unfulfilled promises. Several multinational companies tried their luck in setting up chip production projects, but they did not materialise for various reasons.

Micron Project, A Sign Of Good Things To Come

It took India over three decades after the 1989 tragedy to see a positive development in its semiconductor journey. In August last year, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Sanand, Gujarat, for Micron Technology’s state-of-the-art semiconductor assembly, testing, and packaging facility. Its bosses claim the facility will be operational early next year. The plant will be completed in two phases at a cost of $2.75 billion – $825 million being invested by Micron, and the rest by the Centre and the Gujarat government.

The Micron project appears to be the beginning of the country’s bright chip future. Since the groundbreaking ceremony last year, four new projects have been announced, the latest on Monday when the government said it cleared a proposal of Kaynes Semicon to set up a semiconductor unit in Sanand. All the new units, except Tata Electronics’ fab unit in Dholera in Gujarat are testing and packaging units. Taiwain’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) and Tata Electronics announced in February this year that they will set up a fabrication unit in Dholera. I am sure the government will be more keen to see the progress of this project because it’s India’s first fab unit in the private sector. Neither company in their press statements have given a completion date or the costs involved but according to media reports, the total project will cost Rs 91,000 crore.

India have witnessed several false dawns in the last few decades, but now things appear to be changing, and at a fast speed. There was a time when India could not even dream of producing sophisticated smartphones. That was a domain exclusively captured by China. Today, India is a manufacturing hub for iPhones and other smartphone brands. Citing this success story, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last year, “We have successfully made India a manufacturing hub for mobile phones over the last decade. Now, our next goal is to position the country as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing.”

India Is Established In Just One Segment 

A semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem requires infrastructure for designing, fabrication, research, testing, and packaging. Besides, it needs sophisticated tools, minerals, and gases to make chips. While India severely lacks large-scale semiconductor fabrication facilities, it has built a robust ecosystem for chip design and related services. Major global semiconductor companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, NVIDIA, AMD and Broadcom have established significant design and R&D centres in India. Indian engineers contribute to the design of the most complex chips used in cutting-edge technologies, from artificial intelligence to 5G networks. Companies like Wipro, Tata Elxsi, and HCL Technologies also provide outsourced semiconductor design services, catering to global clients.

“Learn To Walk Before You Can Run”

Now, the Modi government wants India to become a fabrication, R&D, testing, and packaging hub. A tall order indeed, considering India is only at the beginning of the chip race — but not an impossible one. I have spoken to several industry experts worldwide over the last two years, and they believe India can become a semiconductor hub and a global player in 10-20 years if it stays as focused, patient, and committed as the Modi government appears to be today.

To put India’s efforts in perspective, we ought to remember that it took semiconductor superpowers Taiwan and South Korea decades to reach where they are in the race today. “Realistically, it’ll take 10 to 20 years, assuming it is well-executed. You have to learn to walk before you can run. That’s the important thing – to make sure the Micron project is successful,” says Hutcheson, who calls the Micron packaging project “a great baby step”. To be sure, South Korea, Taiwan, and China all started with packaging units.

India’s Challenges

Chip fabrication, which allows for the production of 5 nm or even 2 nm microchips, is widely believed to be the key to the success of a semiconductor mission. A host of things are needed before manufacturing can start 10-15 years later. This is not a simple industry; it requires a lot of work and high-end equipment and materials. 

1. Investment

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association estimates, a state-of-the-art manufacturing factory takes a minimum of 10 years to produce chips. The initial capital investment and operating costs can run up to anywhere between $10 billion and $40 billion. If India dreams of being a chi hub, it will have to invest hugely in the sector in the next 10-15 years. China has been doing just that, pouring billions of dollars into becoming self-reliant in semiconductor manufacturing. The US has pumped in over $100 billion in its own industry since 2022. Against these stark figures, India has managed to inject just about $15 billion into its semiconductor project. 

What India badly needs is private investors and global players.

2. Gases and Mineral Shortages

Semiconductor chip manufacturing essentially uses more than 150 types of chemicals and over 30 types of gases and minerals. At present, all these are available only in a few countries. The challenge for India is to be self-reliant in this sector.

3. Supporting Industries

Some experts believe that the main task for India is to create supporting industries for the chip industry to emerge. The issue relates to some basic things, like having a stable power grid and consistent water availability, which make it possible to build the semiconductor industry.

4. Political Will

The chip industry is capital-intensive and time-consuming, which requires deep commitment from the government and private players alike. It requires the willpower of successive governments to stay in the game. PM Modi wants India to be a developed economy by 2047. A long-term semiconductor strategy will be needed if India really is to become a developed country by 2047.

5. Skilled Manpower

India has manpower in abundance, but it has a shortage of the kind of skilled manpower needed in the semiconductor industry.

6. Brain Drain

India could achieve its goal of becoming a semiconductor hub in around five to six years rather than the conventional 10-20 year timeframe if we manage to bring big Indian talent, serving global companies, back home. Can we entice them with equivalent salary packages and perks? Can nation-building be a motivator? Can we improve our work culture to make it more professional and productive?

Taiwan’s success story owes a lot to the Taiwanese-origin executives who obtained their semiconductor expertise and experiences in the US. The Taiwanese government in the 1980s decided to bring its talented people back to kickstart the semiconductor industry. It paid them salaries on a par with Western companies. These expat Taiwanese played a huge role in making Taiwan a truly global chip hub.

South Korea’s chip revolution also started after the government enticed many Korean experts working in Japanese companies to come back and work in Korea.

There is no dearth of Indians who are doing well in the semiconductor business in the US and elsewhere. Around a dozen leaders of the world’s leading chip-making companies are either Indian or of Indian origin. I have met a couple. They all love India. But India needs to create the right conditions to bring them back, and also stop the brain drain of young engineering graduates who are in high demand abroad.

A New Dawn

India is on the cusp of sealing deals with several multinational companies to launch new projects. The Modi government has recognised the fact that if India needs to be a big geopolitical player, it needs to be the leading light in the semiconductor arena. What follows after the Micron factory will determine the future of India’s semiconductor industry.

(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based senior Indian journalist with three decades of experience with the Western media)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

(This is the second article in a two-part series on the US-China semiconductor battle, and where India stands in it. Here is the first part)

When Chandrayaan 3 landed on the moon on August 23 last year, there was one place in Mohali that was particularly jubilant: the government-run Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL). It was a personal win for SCL’s engineers, the unsung heroes who for months worked on producing a wide variety of semiconductors critical for controlling and commanding the mission. The spacecraft used chips to enable communication with Earth and navigate its way to the landing destination, using sensors and cameras to transmit data and messages.

Mohali’s SCL is India’s only well-known chip-making foundry. It began production in 1984, three years before the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing company, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), was founded.

Today, however, while TSMC produces 90% of the world’s most sophisticated and advanced semiconductors or microchips, churning out the most valued 5-nanometer (nm) chips in size, SCL can make only legacy chips of 100 nm and above, which are obviously many generations old. TSMC’s annual turnover exceeded $70 billion last year, far more than the SCL’s meagre $5 million. And while TSMC’s clients are some of the world’s leading tech firms, such as Apple, AMD and Nvidia, among SCL’s top clients is just ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). TSMC’s factories are state-of-the-art; SCL is in dire need of modernisation and upgradation.

India’s Tough Luck

SCL could have been TSMC’s largest rival if it were not for one very unfortunate incident, which pushed India back to the semiconductor dark ages. On February 27, 1989, a mysterious fire broke out in the plant, destroying most of the facilities. To date, no one knows if it was an act of sabotage or an accident. The factory later rose from the ashes, but by then, it was left far behind in the race.

Dan Hutcheson of Canada’s TechInsights company, one of the industry’s global voices, surprised me when he said he had been monitoring the Indian chip industry since the 1970s. “I have seen India strive for this industry my entire career. There have been only failures. It is important for India to be successful now.” Dan is not wrong, as India’s semiconductor history is made up of a series of broken dreams and unfulfilled promises. Several multinational companies tried their luck in setting up chip production projects, but they did not materialise for various reasons.

Micron Project, A Sign Of Good Things To Come

It took India over three decades after the 1989 tragedy to see a positive development in its semiconductor journey. In August last year, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Sanand, Gujarat, for Micron Technology’s state-of-the-art semiconductor assembly, testing, and packaging facility. Its bosses claim the facility will be operational early next year. The plant will be completed in two phases at a cost of $2.75 billion – $825 million being invested by Micron, and the rest by the Centre and the Gujarat government.

The Micron project appears to be the beginning of the country’s bright chip future. Since the groundbreaking ceremony last year, four new projects have been announced, the latest on Monday when the government said it cleared a proposal of Kaynes Semicon to set up a semiconductor unit in Sanand. All the new units, except Tata Electronics’ fab unit in Dholera in Gujarat are testing and packaging units. Taiwain’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) and Tata Electronics announced in February this year that they will set up a fabrication unit in Dholera. I am sure the government will be more keen to see the progress of this project because it’s India’s first fab unit in the private sector. Neither company in their press statements have given a completion date or the costs involved but according to media reports, the total project will cost Rs 91,000 crore.

India have witnessed several false dawns in the last few decades, but now things appear to be changing, and at a fast speed. There was a time when India could not even dream of producing sophisticated smartphones. That was a domain exclusively captured by China. Today, India is a manufacturing hub for iPhones and other smartphone brands. Citing this success story, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last year, “We have successfully made India a manufacturing hub for mobile phones over the last decade. Now, our next goal is to position the country as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing.”

India Is Established In Just One Segment 

A semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem requires infrastructure for designing, fabrication, research, testing, and packaging. Besides, it needs sophisticated tools, minerals, and gases to make chips. While India severely lacks large-scale semiconductor fabrication facilities, it has built a robust ecosystem for chip design and related services. Major global semiconductor companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, NVIDIA, AMD and Broadcom have established significant design and R&D centres in India. Indian engineers contribute to the design of the most complex chips used in cutting-edge technologies, from artificial intelligence to 5G networks. Companies like Wipro, Tata Elxsi, and HCL Technologies also provide outsourced semiconductor design services, catering to global clients.

“Learn To Walk Before You Can Run”

Now, the Modi government wants India to become a fabrication, R&D, testing, and packaging hub. A tall order indeed, considering India is only at the beginning of the chip race — but not an impossible one. I have spoken to several industry experts worldwide over the last two years, and they believe India can become a semiconductor hub and a global player in 10-20 years if it stays as focused, patient, and committed as the Modi government appears to be today.

To put India’s efforts in perspective, we ought to remember that it took semiconductor superpowers Taiwan and South Korea decades to reach where they are in the race today. “Realistically, it’ll take 10 to 20 years, assuming it is well-executed. You have to learn to walk before you can run. That’s the important thing – to make sure the Micron project is successful,” says Hutcheson, who calls the Micron packaging project “a great baby step”. To be sure, South Korea, Taiwan, and China all started with packaging units.

India’s Challenges

Chip fabrication, which allows for the production of 5 nm or even 2 nm microchips, is widely believed to be the key to the success of a semiconductor mission. A host of things are needed before manufacturing can start 10-15 years later. This is not a simple industry; it requires a lot of work and high-end equipment and materials. 

1. Investment

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association estimates, a state-of-the-art manufacturing factory takes a minimum of 10 years to produce chips. The initial capital investment and operating costs can run up to anywhere between $10 billion and $40 billion. If India dreams of being a chi hub, it will have to invest hugely in the sector in the next 10-15 years. China has been doing just that, pouring billions of dollars into becoming self-reliant in semiconductor manufacturing. The US has pumped in over $100 billion in its own industry since 2022. Against these stark figures, India has managed to inject just about $15 billion into its semiconductor project. 

What India badly needs is private investors and global players.

2. Gases and Mineral Shortages

Semiconductor chip manufacturing essentially uses more than 150 types of chemicals and over 30 types of gases and minerals. At present, all these are available only in a few countries. The challenge for India is to be self-reliant in this sector.

3. Supporting Industries

Some experts believe that the main task for India is to create supporting industries for the chip industry to emerge. The issue relates to some basic things, like having a stable power grid and consistent water availability, which make it possible to build the semiconductor industry.

4. Political Will

The chip industry is capital-intensive and time-consuming, which requires deep commitment from the government and private players alike. It requires the willpower of successive governments to stay in the game. PM Modi wants India to be a developed economy by 2047. A long-term semiconductor strategy will be needed if India really is to become a developed country by 2047.

5. Skilled Manpower

India has manpower in abundance, but it has a shortage of the kind of skilled manpower needed in the semiconductor industry.

6. Brain Drain

India could achieve its goal of becoming a semiconductor hub in around five to six years rather than the conventional 10-20 year timeframe if we manage to bring big Indian talent, serving global companies, back home. Can we entice them with equivalent salary packages and perks? Can nation-building be a motivator? Can we improve our work culture to make it more professional and productive?

Taiwan’s success story owes a lot to the Taiwanese-origin executives who obtained their semiconductor expertise and experiences in the US. The Taiwanese government in the 1980s decided to bring its talented people back to kickstart the semiconductor industry. It paid them salaries on a par with Western companies. These expat Taiwanese played a huge role in making Taiwan a truly global chip hub.

South Korea’s chip revolution also started after the government enticed many Korean experts working in Japanese companies to come back and work in Korea.

There is no dearth of Indians who are doing well in the semiconductor business in the US and elsewhere. Around a dozen leaders of the world’s leading chip-making companies are either Indian or of Indian origin. I have met a couple. They all love India. But India needs to create the right conditions to bring them back, and also stop the brain drain of young engineering graduates who are in high demand abroad.

A New Dawn

India is on the cusp of sealing deals with several multinational companies to launch new projects. The Modi government has recognised the fact that if India needs to be a big geopolitical player, it needs to be the leading light in the semiconductor arena. What follows after the Micron factory will determine the future of India’s semiconductor industry.

(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based senior Indian journalist with three decades of experience with the Western media)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Raymond Greene attends a press conference in Taipei on September 4, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The new de facto U.S. ambassador to Taiwan said Wednesday (September 4, 2024) that the democratic island is “not the only target” of China’s “intimidation and coercion”, with more countries cooperating with Washington to “avoid war”.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and has said it will never renounce the use of force to bring the island under its control.

Beijing has upped military and political pressure on Taiwan in recent years and conducted military drills in May around the island days after the inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.

“Taiwan is not the only target of PRC efforts to use intimidation and coercion to change the status quo,” said Raymond Greene, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto U.S. embassy, using the acronym for China’s official name.

“More and more countries are realising the importance of cooperating with the United States and other like-minded partners to preserve the rules-based international system,” Mr. Greene said during his first news conference as AIT director.

U.S. efforts to build alliances in the region “are not meant to prepare for war but to prevent it”, he added.

China’s campaign of confrontation has also extended to remote reefs in Southeast Asia and far-flung Japanese islands.

Beijing has deployed military and coast guard vessels to press its claims to almost the entire South China Sea, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

Taiwan – separated from China by the narrow 180 km (110-mile) Taiwan Strait – has its own government, military and currency.

To press its claims, Beijing maintains a near-daily military presence, sending in fighter jets, drones and naval vessels around Taiwan.

The island’s defence ministry announced Wednesday (September 4, 2024) night that it had detected military activity in China’s Fujian province across the Taiwan Strait.

“Since yesterday, various types of PLA aircraft, helicopters, and drones have been detected, along with amphibious ships and roll-on/roll-off cargo vessels loading ground forces, conducting joint landing drills near Dacheng Bay,” the ministry said, referring to China’s military.

It added that the ministry has “monitored the situation”.

As China has increased pressures around the island, Taiwan has sought to strengthen ties with friendly countries while ramping up military purchases from the United States, its key ally.

Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but has remained Taiwan’s biggest arms supplier, sparking repeated condemnations from China.

Mr. Greene also said Wednesday (September 4, 2024) that the United States would not “rule out” weapons co-production with Taiwan in the future.

Taichung, Taiwan:

As the cage holding an endangered Formosan black bear swung open conservationists blasted gunshots and air horns to ensure the frightened young bear disappeared quickly into the mountains of central Taiwan, hopefully far from human contact.

Ziman, a one-and-a-half-year-old bear, had finally recovered from the amputation of a paw caused by a hunter’s steel noose and now had a second chance in life.

“Please take care of him and help him find his parents safely,” Pihao Payen, the leader of a nearby ethnic Atayal community, said in a prayer as Ziman disappeared from sight.

Wearing a traditional tribal tunic and headgear decorated with animal horns, the 74-year-old chief and an experienced hunter also prayed for his ancestors’ help to keep Ziman away from traps.

Taiwanese hunters and conservationists are teaming up to protect the Formosan black bear, with only a few hundred estimated still in the wild, by designing new traps which will not amputate limbs if they are accidentally caught in a snare.

While bears are not a target for Indigenous Taiwanese hunters, people in Pihao Payen’s village accidentally caught bears twice in recent years when laying traps for prey such as deer and boars, a traditional practice in Indigenous culture.

Since 2014, 18 bears have been captured in traps, with six found dead, according to the non-governmental organisation, the Taiwan Black Bear Conservation Association.

While most of the bears were released, some suffered major injuries caused by old-fashioned hunting tools such as metal snares, which can break bones or sever paws or toes as the bear struggles to break free.

“Steel snares bounce off from the ground and tighten up their limbs when triggered by animals,” said Liu Li-wen, an animal caretaker who oversaw Ziman’s recovery in a government-run bear shelter in the mountains of Taichung.

“The snares turned tighter and tighter as the animal struggled. When blood circulation stopped, his entire paw turned necrotic,” she said, showing pictures of Ziman’s swollen left paw. Vets had to cut most of the paw off to save the cub’s life after two months of treatment.

“That’s why we are seeing many bears with broken paws or toes in the wild. It’s likely that they were entangled by traps, broke free by themselves and survived,” she said.

NEW SNARES

The Formosan black bear is one of seven subspecies of Asiatic black bear which is considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Indigenous to sub-tropical Taiwan with an iconic V-shaped white mark on the chest, the Formosan black bear is seen as a symbol of Taiwanese identity that champions its diverse culture and freedom. Democratic Taiwan was previously better known internationally as Formosa.

To reduce death or injuries of wildlife, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency is now urging hunters and farmers to adopt a new type of animal snare designed to only trap smaller prey and which does not tighten to the point of amputation.

More than 5,600 such traps have been given to hunters and farmers for free across mountainous Taiwan which is 60% covered by forest, while monetary rewards are given to those who report cases of bears caught by traps.

“Because of its small size, and because the bear’s palm is very wide, you see that it (the bear paw) will not fall in completely when stepped on like this,” explained Pan Wen-ming, an ethnic Amis hunter and guava farmer in central Taiwan, as he demonstrated how to set up the new trap to Reuters reporters.

“It tries to minimise (bear injuries) while letting the elders and hunters of our tribe still hunt for prey,” he said.

Chen Yen-long, chief of the Wushikeng Research Centre bear shelter in Taichung, said some hunters killed snared bears for fear of being prosecuted for trapping a protected animal.

Sadly, Ziman, the cub with the amputated paw, was found dead in the central mountains only weeks after his release, with authorities unable to determine the cause of death.

“This is not the end of the story. We will not stop what we are doing,” said Lai Chiao Ling, one of Ziman’s caretakers. “At least there are still bears in the wild for us to save.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

“When I watched Dangal with Chinese subtitles a few years ago, I noticed an uncanny resemblance between the wrestlers’ father and my own,” says Chen Shih-hsin, Taiwan’s first-ever Olympic gold medallist.

Chen clinched gold in the women’s flyweight division (49-kilogram category) in Taekwondo at the 2004 Athens Olympics, ending a 72-year-long gold medal drought for Taiwan. Despite being a self-governing democracy with its own constitution and legislature, Taiwan competes at the Olympics under the fictitious name “Chinese Taipei” – it is neither part of China nor comprised solely of the city of Taipei (which is one of the 23 cities in the island nation).

“My father was a hard taskmaster, much like the father portrayed in the film. I feel he was even tougher on me,” shares Chen as she teaches around 100 children at her Taekwondo school in the rural township of Xinfeng, near Taiwan’s semiconductor hub, Hsinchu.

“Yes, you could call me a chip off the old block when it comes to inheriting my father’s grit and toughness, similar to the characters in Dangal,” admits Chen, whose life story is full of dramatic and emotional twists.

She is half-aboriginal, as her mother is from Taiwan’s indigenous Atayal community. Her father, Chen Wei-hsiung, ran a Taekwondo training centre in Taipei and introduced her to martial arts at the age of five. By 15, Chen had already made a mark on the world stage by winning her debut appearance at the World Cup in the Cayman Islands in 1994. Two years later, she secured her second world title in Brazil.

However, her career took an unexpected turn shortly after. “I used to despise my father’s relentless push. One day, at 18, I argued with him and ran away from home,” Chen reveals, recalling her transformation from world champion to a “betel nut beauty” – a term for scantily-clad young women who sold betel nuts at kiosks across Taiwan.

After leaving her family and Taekwondo, Chen survived by vending betel nuts and other products in Taichung. “I felt like a rebel, much like the girl in the Bollywood movie who rebelled after joining the national team. But unlike her outspoken defiance, I simply left,” shares Chen.

Three years later, a poignant line in a radio advertisement about a son unable to care for his ageing parents on their birthday led her to return home. Reuniting with her father, she pledged to resume her training and pursue an Olympic dream together. However, the three lost years cost her a chance to compete in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where Taekwondo debuted as an Olympic medal sport.

“Being on my own for those three years strengthened me, helping me cope with the disappointment of missing the Sydney Games,” Chen explains.

Her indomitable spirit and her father’s unwavering support fuelled her strenuous preparation for the next four years. “When I reached Athens, my biggest adversary was myself, not my rivals from Cuba, Nepal, Canada, or Nicaragua,” she reflects.

“The Olympic gold was our shared dream.” Chen continues, “Opening a Taekwondo gym and running it for decades was as much my father’s goal as it was mine. His ultimate aim was to bring an Olympic gold medal to the gym.”

On August 26, Chen made history by defeating Cuban opponent Yanelis Labrada to win the first-ever gold medal for her “invisible” nation, herself, and most importantly, her father.

“Over the years, I’ve fought countless matches, shed many tears, and accumulated numerous injuries. That final match in Athens was worth it,” she expresses.

At 25, Chen decided to retire. “These past twenty-odd years have been challenging, but I’ve been fortunate to avoid severe injuries thanks to my father’s meticulous training,” she notes.

Despite achieving her Olympic dream, Chen’s life continued to resemble a gripping film script. She pursued a PhD in sports psychology, secured a position as an associate professor at a leading university, and started a family with two children. However, personal turmoil struck again.

An alleged extramarital affair with a fellow coach tarnished her reputation, forcing her to resign from her university post, leave her home, and yield custody of her daughter to her estranged husband. Yet, Chen rose from the ashes, relocating to Xinfeng with her son.

Today, Chen teaches Taekwondo to local children in her self-established dojang, away from the public eye and the bustle of Taipei. Although her Athens Olympic gold medal resides at her father’s home, she now dreams of earning a gold medal for her Taekwondo school.

(Suvam Pal works for the Taipei-based TaiwanPlus news channel)

Singapore:

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published on Friday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.

Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year’s most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227 kph (141 mph). On China’s eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world’s land area had seen a rise in “precipitation variability” or wider swings between wet and dry weather.

Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.

“(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods,” said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

“This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods.”

FEWER, BUT MORE INTENSE, STORMS

Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behaviour of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful.

“I believe higher water vapour in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena,” Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years.

While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan’s Nagoya University.

“In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favourable condition for tropical cyclone development,” she said.

In its “blue paper” on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.

Taiwan also said in its climate change report published in May that climate change was likely to reduce the overall number of typhoons in the region while making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven pattern of ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical cyclone research scientist at the University of Reading.

Water vapour capacity in the lower atmosphere is expected to rise by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures, with tropical cyclone rainfall in the United States surging by as much as 40% for each single degree rise, he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Taiwan must protect its sovereignty and know its own culture and history, President Lai Ching-te said on Sunday, rejecting what he said was the previous mistaken belief the island could serve as a base to “retake” China.

Mr. Lai, who took office in May, and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), champion Taiwan’s separate identity from China, a position that frequently angers Beijing which views the island as an inviolable part of Chinese territory.

Speaking to the DPP’s annual convention, Mr. Lai said those who fought to bring democracy to Taiwan – martial law only ended in 1987 – had a clear understanding of the island’s place in the world.

They “did not hesitate to shed blood and used their lives to debunk the mistaken idea that ‘Taiwan is a base to retake the mainland’, and instituted the national policy of putting Taiwan first,” said Mr. Lai, who is also DPP chairman.

Chiang Kai-shek and his defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists.

Chiang hoped to regroup his forces on Taiwan and attack China to destroy Mao’s People’s Republic of China. Chiang died in 1975 without achieving that dream.

Lai said Taiwan had different priorities.

“Now, our responsibility to unite the people, oppose annexation (by China) and ensure national sovereignty,” he said, speaking in Taiwanese, also known as Hokkien, rather than the main language of government, Mandarin.

“We must do our best to let the whole country’s people understand Taiwan’s own history and culture, and establish a national identity that the 23 million people living in Taiwan are a community of destiny,” he added.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours on Sunday. China calls Lai a “separatist”.

Mr. Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future. He has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but been rebuffed.

China staged war games shortly after Mr. Lai’s inauguration, and has continued to send warplanes and warships around Taiwan on a daily basis.

Taiwan starts is annual Han Kuang war games on Monday, which this year aim to be as close as possible to actual combat.

Mr. Lai said the DPP will always adhere to a democratic and free constitutional system.

“We will never allow Taiwan to suffer the danger of extinction due to the failure of democratic politics,” he added.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump prepares to leave after the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee
| Photo Credit: AP

Taiwan “should pay” the United States for defence, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said in a wide-ranging interview that has cast doubt on the relationship between Washginton and Taipei should he be re-elected in November.

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek published on Tuesday, the former President was asked if he would defend self-ruled Taiwan from China, which claims the island as part of its territory.

“I think, Taiwan should pay us for defence,” he said, according to a transcript released by Bloomberg.

“You know, we’re no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn’t give us anything,” he added.

While Washington does not diplomatically recognise the island, it is a key partner and major weapons provider to Taipei.

Taipei:

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the main producer of advanced chips used in artificial intelligence applications, is expected to report a 30% rise in second-quarter profit on Thursday thanks to soaring demand.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker, whose customers include Apple and Nvidia, has benefited from a surge towards AI that has pushed TSMC’s stock – and the broader Taiwan market – to record highs. Last week, its American Depositary Receipts topped a trillion-dollar market value.

TSMC is set to report a net profit of 236.1 billion Taiwan dollar (7.25 billion USD) for the quarter ended June 30, according to a LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 20 analysts. SmartEstimates give greater weighting to forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate.

That estimate compares to the 2023 second-quarter net profit of 181.8 billion Taiwan dollar.

TSMC last week reported a jump in second-quarter revenue, comfortably beating market expectations.

“I expect the third quarter outlook for all of their products to be very good,” said President Capital Management Co Chairman Li Fang-kuo.

TSMC, at its quarterly earnings call at 0600 GMT on Thursday, will update its outlook for the current quarter as well as for the full year, including its capital expenditure as it races to expand production.

TSMC is spending billions building new factories overseas, including $65 billion on three plants in the U.S. state of Arizona, though it says most manufacturing will remain in Taiwan.

On its last earnings call in April, TSMC maintained its guidance for capital spending this year at $28 billion to $32 billion, compared with last year’s $30.45 billion, and said 70% to 80% of that would go towards advanced technologies.

“TSMC could raise their capital spending,” said KGI Securities Investment Advisory Co Chairman Chu Yen-min. “There are many positive factors which will help their stock price and support the broader market.”

The AI boom has helped drive up the price of shares in Asia’s most valuable company, with TSMC’s Taipei-listed stock leaping 75% so far this year to historic highs, compared with a 33% gain for the broader market.

TSMC, colloquially referred to the “sacred mountain protecting the country” for its critical role in Taiwan’s export-dependent economy, faces little competition, though both Intel and Samsung are trying to challenge that dominance.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Anti-landing barricades are pictured on the beach, with China’s Xiamen city in the background, in Kinmen, Taiwan.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Taiwan on July 5 reported renewed Chinese military activity nearby with another “combat patrol” as the government called on Beijing not to escalate tensions after the seizure of a Taiwanese fishing boat.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up its pressure over the past four years, both militarily and politically.

On July 2, Chinese officials boarded and detained a Taiwanese fishing boat for illegally operating in the country’s waters, in what a senior Taiwan official said may be an act of psychological warfare.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said that starting just before 7 a.m. (2300 GMT) on July 5, it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighters, carrying out a “joint combat readiness patrol” with Chinese warships.

The Chinese aircraft flew into airspace to the north, centre and southern parts of Taiwan, the Ministry said.

Taiwan has detected at least 127 Chinese military aircraft operating near the island since the start of this month.

China’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Speaking to reporters earlier on July 5, Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said fishermen should raise their alert level and not do anything that could be considered illegal.

“At the same time, I also want to ask the Chinese side not to escalate with any the use of any excessive measures, because this can easily cause tension and unnecessary confrontation which is extremely unnecessary,” he added.

China says the root cause of its problems with Taiwan is what Beijing views as the “separatist” views of new President Lai Ching-te.

China staged war games shortly after Lai took office in May, and has rebuffed his repeated calls for talks.

Mr. Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.