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Asked about the media report, MediaTek said in a statement that as long as government policies allowed, it was open to "join hands and raise the status and competitiveness of the Chinese and Taiwanese enterprises in the global chip industry".
If you understand the political atmosphere in Taiwan and the dynamic relationship between Taiwan and mainland China, MediaTek has just given a skillful and polite answer. What they really meant is that in the near term this merge proposal is almost impossible to proceed.
I do not think the relationship between China and Taiwan is very good today. That may change but right now I do not see this acquisition happening. MediaTek is the star of the Taiwan fabless semiconductor industry so this is a very political situation. I'm wondering when Marvell will be acquired. Marvell is a very Chinese friendly company and could use some extra help from China business.
Tsinghua Unigroup seems to have a mandate: Acquire a big chip company or else. I think they won't fail in this mandate, and I think US, Japanese and Korean businesses are less likely candidates. So as problematic as TW-CH is, it is the least problematic of difficult options.
It is implausible that China could acquire a foundry, but chip designers, to me, that is plausible. Huawei is also designing smartphone APs.
