Securitization, competition at odds with globalization, says chip manufacturing pioneer

By Necva Tastan

ISTANBUL (AA) – National security concerns, technology, and economic competition are at odds with globalization, the founder of the world's largest chip manufacturing company has said.

“The US has introduced trade restrictions against China to secure its own military and economic leadership while seeking to weaken its rivals’ competitiveness, which is at odds with globalization,” said Morris Chang, founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), according to the Taipei Times daily.

Morris said on Tuesday at the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, “The world has redefined globalization as allowing domestic companies to make profits abroad, and allowing foreign industries and services to enter the home country without harming its national security and [its] current or future technological and economic leadership.”

The 91-year-old chip-making pioneer earlier declared the “death of globalization” as a result of competition between the US and China.

Arguing why Washington and Beijing have “assigned more importance to competition than cooperation,” Morris said: “Globalization has led to a Thucydides trap, an apparent tendency toward war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as a regional or international hegemon.”

TSMC was founded in 1987 and is the world's largest contract chipmaker.

In 2022, TSMC supplied 532 customers with 12,698 products across diverse applications such as high-performance computing, smartphones, IoT, automotive, and digital consumer electronics.