China tweets satellite photos of Taiwan's critical Hsinchu chip hub in pressure-ratcheting political stunt — 'where all the world’s advanced foundry IP is created,' highest concentration of chipmaking facilities in the world

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A Chinese embassy post highlighting Hsinchu Science Park underscores rising geopolitical risks to the world’s most advanced chip supply.

Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan
(Image credit: Hsinchu Science Park)

On Friday night, China’s embassy in Washington posted a familiar message to X: “There is but one China in the world.” But this time, the predictable rhetoric from China came with a glossy photo carousel that included a sweeping aerial shot of Hsinchu Science Park, the epicenter of the world’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

As analyst Patrick Moorhead highlighted in a response to the embassy’s post, Hsinchu includes TSMC’s Fabs 12A, 12B, 20, 3, 5, 8, 2 and the Advanced Backend Fab 1, all crammed into the park’s core, along with the company’s Global R&D Center, “where all the world’s advanced foundry IP is created,” he wrote, pointing out that chips for Nvidia, AMD, Apple, Qualcomm, and even Intel depends on this small square of land.

While the post didn’t mention chips directly, it didn’t have to. Hsinchu is home to TSMC’s original fabs, the headquarters of MediaTek and UMC, and key government agencies that oversee Taiwan’s space and chip strategy. There is no other place on Earth with the same concentration of cutting-edge logic process nodes. This is where the GPUs that train AI models begin, where desktop and server CPUs are etched, and where bleeding-edge silicon IP is designed. Expand the embedded tweet below to see the images.

This isn’t the first time that Beijing has tried to remind the world of Taiwan’s vulnerability. In recent months, Chinese naval forces have staged simulated blockades in the Taiwan Strait, inspecting commercial cargo ships and raising fears of a chokepoint disruption. The Trans-Pacific Express Cable System, which directly connects Taiwan to the U.S. East Coast, Japan, South Korea, and China, was damaged by a Cameroon-flagged freighter, Shunxing39, earlier this year, prompting Taiwan to increase legal penalties for damaging undersea cables.

According to a recent special report from Reuters, U.S. officials have begun modeling worst-case scenarios for the Bashi Channel, a key shipping lane essential to Taiwanese exports like advanced wafers and electronics, in response to recent incursions.

In September, the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called Taiwan’s chip sector the “single greatest point of failure for the world economy” because 99% of high-performance chips are manufactured there, and back in June 2021, a White House review warned that even a temporary hit to TSMC output could ripple through everything from datacenters to defense.

China’s embassy didn’t need to mention any of that directly. A single photo of Hsinchu was enough at a moment while tensions remain high.

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Luke James
Luke James
Contributor

Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist.  Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory. 

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Blessedman
    This is why it is so important to move as much of their facilities to the US.
    Reply
  • mangaTom
    Blessedman said:
    This is why it is so important to move as much of their facilities to the US.
    And give up their leverage on the US and the rest of the world in general? Nah, Taiwan would be stupid to do that. If the US wants to protect their best interests and their access to bleeding edge semi-conductors and electronics, then either they'd protect and defend Taiwan with all their might or develop and establish their own industry independent from Taiwan(just like what China is trying to do). Much better allocation of resources than what they're trying to do against Venezuela.
    Reply
  • Notton
    Don't worry, I'm sure the Department of War will produce an AI video of a man dropping poop on China.
    Reply
  • zsydeepsky
    it would be fun if in the end
    mangaTom said:
    And give up their leverage on the US and the rest of the world in general? Nah, Taiwan would be stupid to do that. If the US wants to protect their best interests and their access to bleeding edge semi-conductors and electronics, then either they'd protect and defend Taiwan with all their might or develop and establish their own industry independent from Taiwan(just like what China is trying to do). Much better allocation of resources than what they're trying to do against Venezuela.
    yep, totally agree.
    I was always amazed how Taiwan might hijack two most powerful nations on the brink of an annihilation war.
    I would even say that...at this point, Beijing would willingly (though probably not verbally) help the US to dismantle TSMC.
    The world would be much more peaceful when China & the US both reached their semiconductor independence.
    Reply
  • ivan_vy
    TSMC need to be in the bleeding edge for its survival, as long as US an China are behind, Taiwan survival is essential for the world's tech
    Reply
  • shady28
    ivan_vy said:
    TSMC need to be in the bleeding edge for its survival, as long as US an China are behind, Taiwan survival is essential for the world's tech

    That is exactly their entire strategy. If all Taiwan made were bananas, nobody would care. Taiwan does Fabs like their lives depend on it - because they do. Necessity is the mother of invention.

    But all that said, this merely highlights why US companies need to diversify away from China in general and have significant high tech chip production capabilities locally (which, at this point, between Intel and Samsung we do). The main things the US is now lacking are mundane discrete components, packaging facilities, and substrate / wafer production. All 3 of those are being developed though.

    Meanwhile Taiwan is worried about producing other things:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/taiwan-targets-blood-bag-production-as-china-steps-up-pressure/ar-AA1GQtQW
    Reply
  • wwenze1
    Both sides agree there's one China, they just don't agree whether the capital is Beijing or Taipei

    Maybe we should ask the people who migrated who they want to be their master
    Reply
  • oicu812
    wwenze1 said:
    Maybe we should ask the people who migrated who they want to be their master

    Not China and not the US. They rather determine their own fate like all other countries.
    Reply
  • usertests
    oicu812 said:
    Not China and not the US. They rather determine their own fate like all other countries.
    ZUqSNbJuGOw
    Reply
  • Tanakoi
    mangaTom said:
    If the US wants to protect their best interests and their access to bleeding edge semi-conductors and electronics, then either they'd protect and defend Taiwan with all their might or develop and establish their own industry independent from Taiwan.
    We're doing both. Welcome to 2025.
    Reply