US-China Tech Race: Chips with Everything
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2022
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our latest season of Tech Tonic continues, with a deep dive into the semiconductor industry and Taiwan’s unique position as a bastion of computer-chip talent. James Kynge, the FT’s global China editor, looks into the unintended consequences of the race for semiconductor dominance.
We hear from Chad Duffy, a Taipei-based cybersecurity expert who helped uncover a major hack on Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers. James talks to Dan Wang, an analyst with the Shanghai-based Gavekal Dragonomics, about China’s chip strategy, and Stephen Orlins, a rare dissenting voice in Washington who questions the efficacy of a US blacklist of Chinese tech companies desperate for US-designed chips. Plus, Annie Ting-Fang and Lauly Li, who cover the semiconductor industry for Nikkei Asia, give us the inside track on how China has been scooping up Taiwanese semiconductor engineers.
Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the FT’s technology team at ft.com/technology
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Presented by James Kynge. Edwin Lane is senior producer. Josh Gabert-Doyon is producer. Manuela Saragosa is executive producer. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
News clips credits: CNBC
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The FT News Briefing is supported by Equinole, the UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.3 | Learn more at equinole.co.uk |
| 0:15.6 | I'm based in Taipei, yeah I'm based in Taipei. |
| 0:17.6 | The security community here is really, you know, really deeply technical. |
| 0:20.5 | There's really vibrant security community full of lots of just really talented |
| 0:24.3 | software developers. |
| 0:26.0 | That's Chad Duffy. |
| 0:27.7 | He works in cyber security, and if you want someone to stop hacking into your company's computer |
| 0:33.8 | system, you might call him. He's American, but these days he works for a company in Taiwan. |
| 0:41.4 | Why? Well, because Taiwan is home to one of the most important technology industries in the world |
| 0:47.8 | today. Semiconductors, the computer chips you find in every phone, laptop, car, and even missile |
| 0:55.6 | system. And when you make semiconductors, sometimes people try to hack you. |
| 1:02.5 | Job security wise, it's pretty amazing because like the attacking is definitely not going to stop. |
| 1:08.3 | Chad's company, Cycraft, is used to seeing security breaches, but towards the end of 2019, |
| 1:16.9 | they got a call from a Taiwanese chipmaker about something completely new. |
| 1:23.4 | Basically, they just saw, you know, some anonymous, you know, user behavior. |
| 1:26.4 | They said, okay, hey, we discovered that like some of our files have been accessed, |
| 1:29.8 | and they came to us asking, hey, can you kind of put together this whole picture? |
| 1:33.2 | What Chad and Cycraft found was a hack bigger and more sophisticated than they'd ever seen before. |
| 1:41.3 | The hackers had borrowed deep into the chipmakers' computer systems, staying there for months |
| 1:46.8 | undetected, giving them free reign to move around and hoover up a gold mine of sensitive chip |
| 1:53.6 | designs and other industry secrets. That's what I think where it got really exciting was when we say, |
... |
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