(Central News Agency reporter Wu Baiwei's special report from Brussels on the 4th) A documentary on the history of Taiwan's semiconductor development "Mountain Builders - The Bet of the Century" was screened in The Hague on the 3rd, attracting more than a hundred people to watch the film. Tian Zhongguang, Taiwan's representative in the Netherlands, said that Taiwan's scientific and technological achievements are based on the talent cultivation environment created by democracy, freedom and human rights, and it will continue to deepen cooperation with countries with similar ideals to promote global scientific and technological development.
According to a press release issued by the representative office in the Netherlands, the film screening and symposium "Mountain Builders - The Bet of the Century" was held in the center of The Hague on the evening of the 3rd, attracting local industry, government, academia, overseas Chinese and media, with more than a hundred people signing up. The event was hosted by Tian Zhongguang, representative in the Netherlands, and Xu Jiaqing, chairman of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, also attended the movie and delivered a speech.
In his speech, Hikaru Tanaka said that "Mountain Builder" takes the Odyssey, the protagonist of Homer's epic poem, as an example, who finally returned home after decades of arduous struggle and numerous obstacles. It symbolizes that Taiwan has made nearly impossible tasks possible through talent, innovation, foresight, government guidance and international cooperation, gradually establishing a semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem and chip supply chain.
He said that Taiwan now controls 92% of the world's most advanced chips and 100% of its AI chip production capacity, which are widely used in communications, transportation, medical and artificial intelligence fields around the world. Taiwan-Netherlands cooperation is most representative of the partnership between TSMC and ASML.
Tanaka Hikaru emphasized that Taiwan's scientific and technological achievements are based on the talent cultivation environment created by democracy, freedom and human rights. In the future, Taiwan will continue to deepen cooperation with countries with similar ideals to jointly promote global scientific and technological development.
In his speech, Xu Jiaqing pointed out that "Mountain Builders" not only presents Taiwan's semiconductor achievements, but also records Taiwan's process of gradually establishing a globally important technology industry through long-term investment in education and research, industry-government-academic cooperation, international exchanges and key talent selection. Taiwan and the Netherlands are highly complementary in the semiconductor ecosystem, showing that advanced technology relies on the flow of talent and knowledge as well as mutual trust and cooperation.
She emphasized that resilience does not come from isolation, but is built on trustworthy connections, sharing of professional knowledge and joint innovation. Taiwan will continue to cultivate talents and deepen international cooperation.
The representative office invited three scholars and experts, including Chen Lingling, professor and director of the Department of Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, Benedetta Girardi, strategic analyst at The Hague Center for Strategic Studies (HCSS), and Cagan Koc, investigative journalist and former Bloomberg Netherlands bureau chief, to hold a post-screening discussion.
The panelists shared their professional views on Taiwan’s semiconductor industry development and challenges, regional geopolitical relations, global supply chain restructuring trends, Taiwan-Netherlands technology cooperation and other issues, and had in-depth exchanges with the audience.
Before the film screening, the representative office arranged to play the "Taiwan Connects" series of videos on Taiwan-EU relations produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and held a cocktail reception after the discussion. Many participants said that they learned more about the long-term development history of Taiwan's semiconductor industry through the film and were deeply moved by the characters and their struggle stories in the film. They looked forward to more opportunities to participate in similar activities in the future to continue to understand Taiwan and deepen exchanges between Taiwan and the Netherlands. (Editor: Tian Ruihua) 1150904
