Zhao Weiguo was just the man to lead Tsinghua Unigroup and China's big push into semiconductors — until he wasn't.
Illustration by Luis Grañena
In April 2018, Zhao Weiguo, the chief executive of Tsinghua Unigroup, took Chinese President Xi Jinping on a tour of a semiconductor facility in Wuhan. At the time, Unigroup, the partially-state-owned semiconductor company, was five years into its aggressive campaign to design and manufacture more advanced chips — a campaign inspired, in large part, by Xi’s wish to sever China’s reliance on foreign suppliers. The photo op of the two men strolling in matching white lab coats seemed to offer proof that everything was proceeding as planned.
Xi Jinping visits Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. in Wuhan, Hubei. 26th of April 2018. Zhao can be seen just behind Xi. Credit: Xinhua/Ju Peng via Alamy
As Zhao went on to boast — on multiple occasions — the general secretary had wished him a happy birthday during the tour, which was “not just an encouragement for me, but for the entire Chinese semiconductor industry,” he said.
Indeed, Zhao is one of th
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