Nice post about how Taiwan's work environment is sadly missing its potential:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19492995

> komali2 on March 26, 2019 | parent | un‑favorite | on: Google will open a new office complex and add hund...

>>Last year, the project trained about 5,000 students in AI technology and 50,000 digital marketers.

>I feel like Taiwan represents a talent opportunity like no other. I dream of starting an engineering company there that is literally a clone of some upcoming business model, and doing nothing but capping the work week at 40 hours and guaranteeing 4 weeks vacation. I could snipe the best talent on hand in the country, which is at the very least equal to some of the best silicon valley has to offer, at nearly half the rates. Lord forbid we target foreign contracts and the company can pay near US rates. I'd pilfer everyone's engineering department ;)

>Overworked, underpaid, extremely competent was my experience of Taiwanese engineering. Google is good to step up in Taiwan - I believe it will pay dividends for them. I wonder what the Google work culture and salaries are like for their Taipei 101 office engineers? Last I checked it was about 2,000$/month for entry level.

I understand the why, but I feel like they could also ask TSMC to pay their workers more.

Say India did the same for software engineers leaving for the US, we'd see it as government overreach.

A surprisingly silly move from an otherwise intelligent country.

* Taiwanese prosecutors alleged last month that China's Bitmain Technologies, the world's leading cryptocurrency mining chip developer, illegally lured more than 100 engineers in Taiwan to boost its artificial intelligence prowess.*

Ah yes, the illegal “offering money in exchange for services rendered” offense.

This is meaningless. Taiwanese can still access job posting sites or be contacted by recruiters from Mainland China. There's no language barrier and they can simply buy a flight ticket to Shanghai and start working wherever they want with full Chinese citizenship.

The brain drain is serious and I don't see how it can be solved unless Taiwan can offer competitive salaries against first-tier cities in the mainland, 10% of Taiwanese population is now living and working in the mainland.

Economic interdependence is a deterrent to war. No country's government can easily handle recessions, but a depression in China would severely jeopardize the Faustian bargain the CCP has given to the citizens of PRC: forfeit your liberties and you are guaranteed prosperity.

China is Taiwan's largest trading partner. Taiwan is China's 6th largest trading partner, but the total trade of Taiwan is worth more than 1/3 of China's total trade with America. That is an extraordinary amount for a country almost 14 times smaller than the United States.

If trade is reduced between the two countries, it could lessen the economic damage taken by the PRC if it were to initiate an invasion, or even increase hybrid and gray-area warfare. This would mean such actions would constitute less political risk for the CCP.

Only ban recruiters? Amateurs. South Korea used to charge those moving employees with industrial espionage. (Maybe it still does, but at least I didn't hear about these "incidents" in recent years, so I'm cautiously hopeful.)

"We're free market!" ... "Whoa whoa, not like that." Seriously just pay these people more.

1. TSMC pay its employees well compare to other companies in Taiwan. they are also know for paying big yearly bonus.

2. this news is interesting. i'm guessing we have reach to the point where Taiwan have to use this tactic to prevent brain drain. it also shown us how aggressive China is to make Made in China 2025, a reality. semis chip is the biggest China import.

3. there are several news about China poaching TSMC employees before. this is really going to test TSMC, from what i understand their high end node production process is componentized and not one person know the whole process from start to end. we'll see if that is true.

I guess current TSMC employees can not leverage other job offers (most of them are from mainland China) to increase their salaries anymore. Essentially, the government is helping TSMC to keep the labor cost low.

How free are mainland engineers to take jobs in Taiwan? Can Taiwan recruit from the mainland talent pool?

This seems odd, but it's also unreasonable that a small economy would be able to defend itself from competition from a large state actor.

In 'free trade' deals, the big fear is you 'open up' to competition while the other nation uses massive government money to gut your industry, wipe you out and take over. That's why the legal language on Free Trade surrounds government intervention and subsidies.

China is huge and this is a 'primary strategic concern' for them, they will pay anything for the individuals they need, and of course, to give Taiwan a black eye.

This is literally a form of economic warfare we are seeing with a large country trying to wipe out a strategic industry in a smaller country.

So the action by Taiwan is understandable, even if it seems odd to use in the West.

So.. TSMC can't post job postings in Mainland China but what's to stop engineers from being hired to SMIC?

From a Taiwan vantage point, is it feasible to ban domestic workers watching China located jobs via Linkedin or other such platforms?

Seems like too little too late.

what's left when people leave your tax heaven? where rich people will find low-cost slaves?

that'll happen to singapore soon

I think the recruitment ban policy is super-smart given the context.

Competing with China seems like a pretty low bar: imagine google's ban happy AI except that instead of banning you it takes your passport, cuts of government services, and potentially throws you in prison to have your organs harvested.

If you're actually losing employees to that you have a serious moral/retention/communication/pay problem.