APEC leaders rushed to ask for help… Zhang Zhongmou: They asked me what happened to the chip

The epidemic and AI-catalyzed chip supply chain resilience have greatly increased the importance. TSMC founder Chang Chung-mou represented Taiwan as the APEC leader for the seventh time this year. During the summit, leaders from various countries rushed to actively solicit input on semiconductor issues. Former U.S. House Speaker Pelosi even praised him He is a “remarkable genius”.

The APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting concluded successfully on the 17th. Zhang Zhongmou, who has been attending various official meetings and conducting off-site bilateral talks non-stop in recent days, stood almost the entire afternoon at the International Press Conference to answer questions from the media. Although he is 92 years old, he did not show any signs of fatigue and was still able to do so. The reporter was jokingly asked whether he remembered the four major tasks assigned to him by the president.

After the world has put aside the haze of the COVID-19 epidemic, artificial intelligence has become a prominent science. The emergence of ChatGPT has accelerated the popularity of generative AI. Chips have become the food of the digital era. During this year’s APEC summit, many leaders took the initiative to ask Zhang Zhongmou for help from semiconductors. When he was asked at the international press conference, “Who hasn’t talked to you about chips?” he responded brilliantly, “Maybe you think it’s funny when I say it. They asked me what the chips are like. It’s true, it’s true.”

At the leaders’ representative appreciation dinner on the evening of the 17th, when Xiao Meiqin, the representative in the United States, introduced the surprise appearance of Pelosi, Zhang Zhongmou also blew a kiss, and the atmosphere was lively. This APEC leader representative with both wisdom and childlike innocence is best known as the founder of TSMC.

At a time when countries are clamoring for strengthening the resilience of the supply chain, as the founder of TSMC, Zhang Zhongmou is full of golden words. He cited TSMC’s expansion of Taiwan’s production capacity and establishment of factories in the United States and Japan as examples to point out the need to strengthen the resilience of the supply chain. We need to understand the fact that “globalization is almost dead.”

Foreign officials revealed that Zhang Zhongmou was highly respected at the conference. “Every country in the world now knows that no country can occupy an important position in the world like TSMC, which he runs.” Many leaders took the initiative to interact with him. He really represented Taiwan strives for a lot of international respect and friendship.

APEC has a total of 21 economies. In addition to the official itinerary, Zhang Zhongmou held interactive dialogues with more than half of the leaders during this trip and also completed the four tasks assigned by President Tsai. My wife, Zhang Shufen, shared that one time he just returned to the hotel to rest for two minutes. “I peeled oranges for him to eat, and he was reading the information again.” There was very little chance to talk to each other. “Only after reading the newspaper did I realize that he had met five people yesterday.” Even when Zhang Zhongmou met with US Vice President Harris Harris, he only found out about it by reading the newspaper.

Since Zhang Zhongmou arrived in San Francisco on the 14th, in addition to meeting with his old friend Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, allies Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Kamala Harris and other leaders, he also interacted frequently with APEC host US officials, especially with the White House Chief Executive who is leading the implementation of the chip law. Economic adviser Lael Brainard’s team talks broadly touched on semiconductor cooperation.

Pelosi said in an interview with Taiwanese media that Chang Chung-mou is a big man who cannot be ignored. Once when he returned to the United States from Taiwan, everyone asked, “Have you met Morris (Chung Chung-mou’s English name)? They know that I have met the president, but next time One problem is this”, highlighting that Zhang Zhongmou is indeed a global celebrity and “a great genius.”

Editor: Qin Yingwen

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