From the Financial Times (link)
The sprawling factory complex of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering in Shanghai is large enough to get lost in. ASE, the world’s largest chip packaging and testing company, is ready to make its presence felt in China.
Much of the 66,000 square metres in floor space is still empty, however, and another 41,000 sq m of land has not been built on. That is because ASE is Taiwanese and is thus bound by recently toughened restrictions imposed by Taipei on cross-strait investment. The curbs have put Taiwan’s government on a collision course with big business on the island.
For many Taiwanese companies, including a number of global electronics industry leaders, the cost of sitting on the fault-line of one of the world’s most complex conflicts may simply become too high as a result. Executives say Taiwanese businesses could start cutting ties with their home territory in a showdown over which is more important: politics or the economy.
