The US$20 billion semiconductor manufacturing project backed by the Chinese government has gone belly-up, Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (HSMC), on February 26 announced its decision to dismiss all employees. Chinese media reports disclosed that the company's employees were "asked to resign" by February 22 via a WeChat message. The company made clear that it had "no plan to resume production," which has been halted since late 2019 due to failure to attract more investors. Launched in November 2017, HSMC had a planned investment of US$20 billion and a leadership team of former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) executives, including Chiang Shang-yi (蔣尚義), TSMC's former chief operating officer, as its CEO. It was said to be able to create 50,000 jobs, directly or indirectly, and have an annual output of US$9.25 billion once running at full capacity.
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