Engineering in China vs. Taiwan

Three years ago today, I was halfway through my first two week stint in Beijing, working on a project to develop a STEAM camp for high school kids. I met an engineer, who explained to a very rookie me about how engineering was in high demand in China. Here's an excerpt from my Facebook post about the trip:

According to an early employee of Facebook who runs his own fund these days, the top two percent of the engineering talent of China is in high demand, not because they understand the theoretical underpinnings of STEM or design, but because they are boldly trying to build things in niche, hyper-focused areas of high tech, rather than work for companies that build huge infrastructure products. In many cases, this man told me, the efforts are not grandiose, but they are unusual technologies that deal with using AI and scans of the physical environment for weather, people, and security issues, and that teach the systems how to predict changes and news events, in some cases. Very interesting.

To the uninitiated, it makes sense that if you want to do something in technology, you would be acting smart to hire someone from China.

But three years after the fact, and having spent more time in the country and in other countries around Asia, I think there are negatives to doing work in China.

There's political risk and also ideological risk -- does China want to use tech for the same reasons that the rest of the world does? It's not likely.

There are historical / legacy issues with technology -- other countries have a longer track record of building chips and other technology innovations than China.

And also there's accessibility and interconnectedness.

I think we are seeing the beginnings of a massive shift in the way the technology and innovation supply chain relies on China for its engineering prowess, cost of labor and effectiveness at distribution.

There are other countries more well-adjusted and more integrated with international practice, which do not censor the internet, or use technology to monitor and track civilians. And that have a longer history of building tech innovations that fit into the consumer business model and market practices of another three billion people who live outside of China, in Southeast Asia.

I think one of those countries is Taiwan, and if you look at the track record of some of the companies that have started in Taiwan, or established R&D centers here, and moved into markets in Southeast Asia -- Shopee; M17; Carousell, etc. -- you see a pattern.

Those companies are able to move quickly, and in healthy rates of growth, and they have zero political risk or attachment to ideology that is contrary to global public opinion.