News Analysis
It appears China’s national chipmaking campaign is coming to an end, with huge investments drained and key figures in the semiconductor industry arrested recently.
According to Chinese financial media Caixin, on Aug. 2, Zhao Weiguo, former chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, and Diao Shijing, the company’s former co-president, were both investigated last month. Li Luyuan, the chairman of Beijing Tsinghua, a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, was also taken away by authorities at the same time.
Tsinghua Unigroup, a Beijing-based leading company in China’s semiconductor industry, filed for bankruptcy and restructured in 2021.
Six years prior, during a visit to Taiwan in 2015, the company’s then-chairman Zhao had claimed to buy TSMC, the world’s dedicated semiconductor foundry.
On July 30, China’s top disciplinary watchdog agency announced that Ding Wenwu, the general manager of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (ICF), was placed under investigation.
Since the establishment of ICF in 2014, Ding has served as its president. ICF invested and acquired shares in enterprises under the Tsinghua Unigroup.
Other key individuals investigated in the semiconductor circle include the following: Lu Jun, former president of SINO-IC Capital; Yang Zhengfan, deputy general manager of the company’s investment department; and Wang Wenzhong, partner of Hongtai Fund and former classmate of Lu Jun.
SINO-IC Capital is the sole management part of ICF…
