News Analysis
It appears China’s national chipmaking campaign is coming to an end, with huge investments drained and key figures in the semiconductor industry arrested recently.
According to Chinese financial media Caixin, on Aug. 2, Zhao Weiguo, former chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, and Diao Shijing, the company’s former co-president, were both investigated last month. Li Luyuan, the chairman of Beijing Tsinghua, a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, was also taken away by authorities at the same time.
Tsinghua Unigroup, a Beijing-based leading company in China’s semiconductor industry, filed for bankruptcy and restructured in 2021.
Six years prior, during a visit to Taiwan in 2015, the company’s then-chairman Zhao had claimed to buy TSMC, the world’s dedicated semiconductor foundry….