UMC founder takes to the hustings

Bob Tsao (pictured), founder and former CEO of Taiwan’s first chip company, UMC, has taken to the hustings in Taiwan to campaign for the removal of 37 members of the Yuan – the country’s legislative body.

The 37 are all members of the pro-Beijing party – the KMT.

Tsao told the Nikkei that the KMT is a Trojan horse bent on  enabling the annexation of Taiwan by Beijing.

The Yuan has 113 members of which 54 are KMT, 51 DPP and 8 TPP. The President of Taiwan is a DPP member who is finding his legislative programme obstructed by the KMT. 



Tsao reckons there’s a good chance of getting rid of between 8 and 20 KMT members out of the 37 undergoing a recall vote.

Tsao said that at one time he believed that a closer union with mainland China could be achieved by negotiation but changed his mind after Beijing’s treatment of the Hongkongers.

Tsao founded UMC as a spin-off from the government research establishment ITRI in 1980 and set it up as a broad-based IDM designing and fabbing memory, standard logic, microprocessors including x86 clones, telecoms chips, custom ICs and consumer devices including watch chips.

In 1995, following on the runaway success of TSMC, UMC decided to drop proprietary products and become a foundry

David Manners

David Manners

David Manners has more than forty-years experience writing about the electronics industry, its major trends and leading players. As well as writing business, components and research news, he is the author of the site's most popular blog, Mannerisms. This features series of posts such as Fables, Markets, Shenanigans, and Memory Lanes, across a wide range of topics.

Comments

2 comments

  1. Hi DAVID again – by the way BOLD move by BOB TSAO.

  2. HI DAVID – had to Google the meaning of “hustings” since it was a strange word to me.
    Result – Hustings are a place where political campaign speeches are made, or the proceedings or locale of an election campaign. The term comes from an Old Norse word meaning “house assembly” and has a long history of judicial and political use.
    I thought it proper to share with others who wondered what the meaning is also. I hope it helps other readers!

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