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
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
Can a central bank digital currency work? China was the first major economy to launch one and, despite several setbacks, is starting to see the digital yuan take off.
The journalist-turned-lawmaker talks about her book on four women coming of age in modern China, the end of optimism for the younger generations, and being the first Chinese-born British MP.
September 17th: Strategies for Identifying Military End Users
