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US-China chip war: ‘When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled’
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A printed circuit board is pictured at the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI) at Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Sept. 16, 2022.
(Reuters/Ann Wang)
U
nited States sanctions on the Chinese semiconductor industry affect not only those two countries, but also the global supply chain, as revealed by Singaporean industry insiders.
Singapore is home to several semiconductor start-ups that either design chips for electronic devices or are heavy users of microchips manufactured or designed globally, including from China.
“Singapore is so small that when ‘elephants fight, the grass gets trampled’. So, [we] just have to make sure that the elephants don’t step on us,” said Edwin Chow, assistant CEO for innovation and enterprise at Enterprise Singapore — a government agency with responsibility for enterprise development — referring to the US and China as the fighting elephants.
Read also: US should stop trying to suppress China, says Wang Yi
Reeling in major global players — such as STMicroelectronics, Micron Technology, GlobalFoundries, Taiwan’s TSMC and UMC has been a major part of the Southeast Asian city-state’s development strategy.
“Semiconductors are a critical part of our economy. I think probably close to a third of our manufacturing is semiconductors,” revealed Chow.
For his part, Chow said that US-imposed sanctions on the Chinese semiconductor sector had affected the industry in a number of ways; first and foremost by ramping up costs given that China was cut out of the supply chain.
