Notes from Central Taiwan: Semiconductors and security The DPP’s policy choice to supply water to the tech industry at the expense of other industries could come back to haunt them in future elections By Michael Turton / Contributing reporter In the American west, “it is said, water flows upwards towards money,” wrote Marc Reisner in one of the most compelling books on public policy ever written, ...
Notes from Central Taiwan: Semiconductors and security The DPP’s policy choice to supply water to the tech industry at the expense of other industries could come back to haunt them in future elections By Michael Turton / Contributing reporter In the American west, “it is said, water flows upwards towards money,” wrote Marc Reisner in one of the most compelling books on public policy ever written, Cadillac Desert. As Americans failed to overcome the West’s water scarcity with hard work and private capital, the Federal government came to the rescue. As Reisner describes: “the American West quietly became the first and most durable example of the modern welfare state.” In Taiwan, the money toward which water flows upwards is the high tech industry, particularly the chip powerhouse Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). Typically articles on TSMC’s water demand toss out numbers intended to amaze and alarm the reader. “From 2015 to 2019, TSMC’s total water consumption surged by an astonishing 70 percent,” observed a 2024 Diplomat piece on TSMC’s water needs. It continued: “By 2036, Taiwan’s overall water consumption is projected to be 7.3 percent higher than in 2021, creating a daily supply deficit of 680,000 cubic meters” (2037 is when half the nation’s workforce will be over 45). No doubt there will be a water deficit, but the high tech industry will not be affected. Government policy is both to assure the semiconductor industry an uninterrupted flow of water, and to conceal the industry’s actual consumption of water. The social and ecological costs of these policies are borne by rural regions, aging, silent and powerless. The semiconductor industry and its associated firms and R&D houses reside in the nation’s numerous science parks. The National Science and Technology Council manages the operations of the parks, special economic zones exempt from land laws and treated by environmental agencies with a weak and timorous hand. Firms in science parks receive ...
在多年内战重创这个东南亚国家后，名义上由文职官员执政、实则仍受军方控制的政府可能有助于加强与中国及部分邻国的经贸往来。 缅甸军方正通过一场被批评人士称为“作秀”的选举巩固其对权力的掌控。在多年内战重创这个东南亚国家后，军政府试图披上一层可信度外衣。 自2021年发动政变、推翻诺贝尔和平奖得主昂山素季(Aung San Suu Kyi)领导的政府以来一直掌权的军方，举行了一场分三阶段进行的选举，这场...
在多年内战重创这个东南亚国家后，名义上由文职官员执政、实则仍受军方控制的政府可能有助于加强与中国及部分邻国的经贸往来。 缅甸军方正通过一场被批评人士称为“作秀”的选举巩固其对权力的掌控。在多年内战重创这个东南亚国家后，军政府试图披上一层可信度外衣。 自2021年发动政变、推翻诺贝尔和平奖得主昂山素季(Aung San Suu Kyi)领导的政府以来一直掌权的军方，举行了一场分三阶段进行的选举，这场选举被广泛指责为明显偏向军方。最后一轮投票于周日举行。 鉴于昂山素季及其他民主派领导人被监禁，反对党被解散，以及联合国所称的“恐惧、暴力和大规模镇压”的氛围，选举结果没有悬念——军政府支持的政党胜出。 成为高端会员，阅读高端专享内容 如您已经是高端会员， 请点击这里登录 成为高端会员►