The University of Nottingham's Taiwan Research Hub presents a talk by
Professor Chan-Yuan Wong, Institute of Technology Management, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
Semiconductors in the Age of Geopolitics: Navigating Competition and the Race for Technological Leadership
Monday 10 February 2025, 1-2:30 pm including lunch, D13 Monica Partridge Building, In person Event
Talk abstract
This talk will present the evolving landscape of global semiconductor value chains (GVCs) amid the intensifying U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry. It will focus on U.S. measures, such as the CHIPS Act and semiconductor technology export restrictions, aimed at limiting China’s access to advanced technologies and equipment, thus slowing its progress and leapfrogging potential.
The talk will discuss the significant impacts of these policies on memory (HBM, DRAM, NAND) and logic chip sectors. Using a framework grounded in realism-based great power rivalry and firm strategies, we will discuss how semiconductor firms in South Korea and Taiwan are adapting. These firms are reconfiguring their GVCs by enhancing high-end production domestically while maintaining lower-end operations abroad.
Patent analysis shows that Korea and Taiwan continue to maintain technological dominance in both patent quantity and quality, while Japan has lost ground to China in patent quantity. Despite China’s rapid growth in patents, challenges remain in converting this into market leadership due to restricted access to advanced lithography tools and complementary technologies. China’s progress differs across segments: it is advancing faster in low-end foundry chips (e.g., SMIC), moderately in NAND memory (e.g., YMTC), and slower in DRAM (e.g., CXMT). Despite the barriers posed by U.S. measures, China is making strides in domesticating its chipmaking value chains, including equipment and components.
This talk will offer insights into the strategies of key players, the role of innovation in geopolitical competition, and the implications for the semiconductor industry’s future amid global uncertainties.
About the Speaker
Chan-Yuan is Professor at the Institute of Technology Management, National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and Visiting Professor at SARChI, University of Johannesburg in South Africa. Additionally, he serves as an associate editor for the journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
He has studied and worked across Asia, including Malaysia, Thailand, and Korea. He completed a postdoctoral stint at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and held the position of Senior Lecturer at the University of Malaya from 2011 to August 2018. He has consulted widely on industrial analysis and technology policy for various organizations, including UNCTAD, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Science and Technology in Malaysia, and UNIID-SEA in the Philippines.
Chan-Yuan has held several visiting positions in Asia and Europe, including as a visiting fellow at UNU-MERIT in the Netherlands in 2015 and as a researcher at Seoul National University, Korea in 2017. Chan-Yuan has published extensively on topics such as technology catch-up in the semiconductor industry, regional innovation systems, analysis of the high-tech industry, and governance issues in middle-income economies. His book titled "Experimental Learning, Inclusive Growth, and Industrialized Economies in Asia: Lessons from South Korea and Taiwan" was published by Palgrave Macmillan in August 2022.
Co-chaired by
Dr Chun-yi Lee, Taiwan Research Hub, University of Nottingham and Dr Desmond Sham, Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies, University of Nottingham