I work for a multinational company that’s trying to nearshore some engineering work away from East Asia and into Eastern Europe. The official line is that they’re expanding the team, but the senior engineers aren’t stupid and know they’re being asked to train their replacements. Needless to say they’ve been stonewalling the process.

I expect this is also very much the case in TSMC as well. Even if you’re a rabid anti-communist, you’ll know that a tech transfer to the US loses Taiwan the only bargaining chip it has. Why would you play along?!