From AP via the Los Angeles Times (link):
In a five-story factory nearly the size of three football fields, technicians clad in spacesuit-like attire work around the clock producing silicon chips at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
The company, the world’s largest contract chip maker, is a source of pride in Taiwan. It’s what people point to when they say the “Made in Taiwan” label is no longer a symbol of shoddy umbrellas, sneakers, radios and trinkets the island was known to churn out.
But TSMC and other companies in Hsinchu, Taiwan’s Silicon Valley, are beginning to feel the heat from neighboring China. Some observers say it’s just a matter of time before this island’s high-tech lead is eclipsed by the Communist mainland 100 miles to the west.
