“I was reminded of the extremely cold and condescending coverage by Asahi Shimbun and NHK toward Toshiba, as if portraying it as a zombie company.”
November 30, 2019
This is a re-posting of a chapter originally published on May 21, 2019, titled:
“Elpida’s Bankruptcy Was Caused by the Taiwanese Semiconductor Syndicate Flooding the Market with Below-Cost Memory, Destroying Market Prices.”
The same chapter, originally posted on August 19, 2017, recently re-entered the Top 10 real-time rankings.
The following continues from the previous chapter.
(All emphasis within the body text is mine.)
Why the “Green Gang” Became So Powerful
It is said that the leader of this syndicate is Chiao Yu-chio (焦佑釣), CEO of Taiwan’s memory manufacturer Winbond.
There are two main reasons the semiconductor syndicate, known as the “Green Gang”, has grown so large:
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The use of photomask circuit prototypes—outsourced by companies around the world to Taiwan’s semiconductor foundries.
Under Taiwanese law, these photomasks become the property of the local factories.
So, no matter how much effort and investment Japan puts into designing semiconductor circuits, similar products quickly flood the market. -
The manipulation of production and quality control.
Taiwan’s semiconductor factories mass-produce chips at low cost and then falsely label high-quality chips as defective, selling them on the black market to fund the Green Gang’s illicit operations.
Depending on market conditions, they sell chips at cut-rate prices to manipulate global pricing.
The cause of Elpida’s collapse was precisely this:
The Taiwanese semiconductor syndicate flooded the market with memory products below cost, shattering market prices.
Now, the Green Gang—having effectively become a global semiconductor syndicate—has its eyes not only on Toshiba Memory, but also on Toshiba’s radar technologies.
During the development of the F-35 under the U.S. JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) program, the U.S. government acknowledged suffering from Chinese espionage.
Though not publicly detailed, inside sources revealed that semiconductor technologies related to flight controllers were leaked to China through subcontractors.
The Green Gang was involved in this leakage.
Recently, China has been promoting its own F-35 copy fighter, the “TJ31,” to countries that cannot buy American weapons.
However, rumors abound that its engine performance and radar technology are inferior to those of the real F-35.
To bridge this technological gap, China desperately wants top-class engine and radar technology—and Toshiba possesses some of the world's most advanced radar technology.
The U.S. government has repeatedly blocked attempts by China’s Tsinghua Unigroup to acquire American memory companies, because it fears that China might obtain high-performance radar capabilities.
If China’s imitation F-35 were equipped with high-precision radar, it would become virtually impossible to contain Beijing’s aggression.
Developing high-precision radar requires advanced memory technology that can handle high-speed data input and output.
That is the true reason why the U.S. has consistently opposed China’s acquisition of memory firms.
To be continued.
As I reread this article, I was reminded of the cold, dismissive reporting by Asahi Shimbun and NHK when Toshiba was facing a management crisis due to the accounting scandal at the major American nuclear power company it had acquired.
They reported on Toshiba as if it were a zombie company, completely looking down on it.
In other words, I became convinced it is no exaggeration to say that these media outlets act as agents of China.
