The Hsinchu Science Park, on Taiwan’s west coast, is lush and green, with streets neatly planned and clearly signposted. The buildings are modern and well maintained – from the outside most visitors wouldn’t even know that they are among the world’s most important factories.

Hsinchu used to be famous for its fishball street snacks, but now it’s referred to as Taiwan’s Silicon Valley, a tech-focused microcosm pipelining workers from school to university and into the world-leading semiconductor industry that is crucial to global supply chains.

The chips, or semiconductors, are the tiny pieces of tech that power just about everything, including computers, mobile phones and cars. A single chip can carry tens of billions of transistors required to make electronic goods work, with the most advanced ones – mostly made in Taiwan – carrying more.

This week, Taiwan’s semiconductors were in the spotlight after Donald Trump rehashed an old accusation that Taiwan had taken the US’s business away. He used the claim to question whether his country’s long running support for Taiwan would continue if he becomes president again in November.

(Adapted from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/19/taiwan-semiconductor-industry-booming)