"Building two chip production lines in five years is far too bold."
When the microphone at the National Integrated Circuit "10th Five-Year Plan" Strategy Seminar was handed to Jiang Shangzhou, then Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Economic Commission, he told the assembled experts:
"Not two. Shanghai will build ten lines in five years."
In 1997, 50-year-old Jiang Shangzhou received a new appointment: Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Economic Commission.
He was a standard "red second generation." His father, Jiang Yizhen, was an old Red Army soldier who participated in the Long March, and had served as Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Health, and Secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee.
He was also a rare official of that era with overseas study experience, having been sent by the state to study at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, whose most famous alumnus is Albert Einstein.
This time, he was handed a difficult game to play.
At that time, Shanghai, China's largest industrial city, was experiencing the throes of transition.
Textiles, steel, petrochemicals... these past glories of Shanghai were gradually becoming the city's "burdens." In the central government's development plan, Shanghai's future was to rely on high technology and emerging industries.
As Deputy Director of the Economic Commission, Jiang Shangzhou's core task was to screen strategic industries that would lead Shanghai's future development. One of his answers: integrated circuits.
Over the past two decades, China's integrated circuit projects had always progressed in fits and starts. Under Western technological blockades, China could only purchase "second-hand production lines" already discarded by developed countries. Coupled with delays and time for absorption and implementation, by the time a production line was acquired, it was already three generations behind, trapping the industry in an inescapable cycle of "introduction — factory construction — production — falling behind — re-introduction."
The autonomous 908/909 projects failed successively, casting a pall of depression over the entire integrated circuit industry. Add to that the global semiconductor industry downturn at the time, and industry profits had already been severely slashed. At the national "10th Five-Year Plan" strategic planning seminar for integrated circuits, the prevailing tone was: we must develop chips, but aim for two 8-inch production lines over five years.
But when the microphone was passed to Jiang Shangzhou, he faced the room of experts and stated Shanghai's plan:
During the "10th Five-Year Plan" period, Shanghai would build ten 8-inch chip production lines.
As a technical official with a professional background, Jiang Shangzhou's words had their basis.
In his view, chips were one of the industries most severely constraining China's development, and they had to be mastered no matter how difficult.
By around 2000, chips had already become China's largest import product, exceeding the import volume of the five major strategic materials (minerals, grain, etc.), and more than all energy imports. Virtually 100% of chips for China's TVs and mobile phones were imported.
With this plan, Jiang Shangzhou returned to Shanghai.
After reviewing the history of Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park and comparing Shanghai's strengths and weaknesses, he proposed to Shanghai's decision-makers: planning a 22-square-kilometer Zhangjiang Microelectronics Development Zone in Pudong, three times the size of Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park.
In Jiang Shangzhou's view:
Within the semiconductor industry, ethnic Chinese are a remarkable group, possessing one of the world's best talent pools and networks. Shanghai, being the mainland city most favored by international capital and having a strong industrial foundation, would surely surpass Taiwan as long as it built the nest to attract the phoenixes.
Therefore, Jiang Shangzhou spared no effort traveling to Taiwan specifically to recruit talent. He sought out the renowned semiconductor industry figure, Zhang Rujing.
In Shanghai, Zhang Rujing received the strongest possible commitment: you can choose any plot of land in Zhangjiang.
But according to the manufacturing processes of the time, building 10 production lines required at least tens of billions more in investment. Where would the money come from? Jiang Shangzhou thought of introducing foreign capital.
SMIC, structured as a foreign-invested enterprise, ingeniously introduced a wide array of Chinese and foreign capital in a very dispersed manner, even including American firms like Goldman Sachs and Walden. This sophisticated calculation not only provided SMIC with capital but also circumvented Western blockade restrictions, enabling the acquisition of large amounts of semiconductor equipment to quickly join the race.
On August 24, 2000, he led SMIC in driving the first pile officially in Pudong's Zhangjiang. Just 13 months later, trial production began. Within 3 years, 4 eight-inch production lines and 1 twelve-inch production line were established—a speed unprecedented globally.
By 2003, SMIC had already surged to become the world's fourth-largest foundry, its rise astonishing.
In 2004, Jiang Shangzhou encountered another key figure: Yin Zhiyao, who had worked at semiconductor giants Intel, Lam Research, and Applied Materials, and was then Vice President at Applied Materials and a top global expert in chip etching. Jiang invited the 60-year-old Yin Zhiyao to Shanghai's Zhangjiang to establish AMEC (Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc.), beginning China's "pioneering era" in etching equipment.
Through Jiang Shangzhou's efforts, a group of semiconductor talent set up companies in Shanghai. In less than five years, Shanghai had built or was building 18 eight-inch IC production lines, exceeding the target.
Jiang Shangzhou firmly believed that at this pace, his 1998 prediction that "the mainland chip industry will surpass Taiwan between 2015 and 2020" would surely come true.
Compared to integrated circuits, Jiang Shangzhou's other grand endeavor was commercial large aircraft.
Jiang Shangzhou's connection with large aircraft began in 2003 when he became the head of the State Council's Major Special Project Demonstration Group, participating in the formulation of the National Medium- and Long-Term Science and Technology Development Plan Outline.
But what no one knew was that this was his third year since being diagnosed with lung cancer.
As head of the demonstration group, "Large Civil Aircraft" became the first project he selected, and also the hardest "bone to chew" in the demonstrations.
For over half a century, China's journey in building civil large aircraft had been exceptionally difficult, with many twists and turns from the Y-10 to the C919.
At that time, discussions advocating "it's better to buy than to build, better to lease than to buy" were rampant. Due to technological monopolies by developed countries, China's commercial aircraft R&D faced problems of high costs and long payback periods. Moreover, the large aircraft project was entangled in complex interest games.
However, Jiang Shangzhou understood that large commercial aircraft were the pearl on the crown of modern industrial technology. "Large aircraft must be developed. This is not just an economic issue; it involves national strategic security."
In reality, what developed countries truly wanted to curb was not the technology of a particular aircraft, but the entire platform upon which such technological capabilities depended. Jiang Shangzhou saw early on the profound significance of the large aircraft project for China's industrial restructuring.
"Having 100 technologies doesn't necessarily mean you can build a large aircraft. Conversely, building a large aircraft can drive the development of 100 technologies."
Developing large aircraft could drive breakthroughs in key technologies across fields like new materials, electronic information, and automatic control, and would also spur major advances in fundamental disciplines such as fluid mechanics. Therefore, incorporating large aircraft into the national major strategic development plan was installing a leading force for China's machinery, electronics, materials, metallurgy, and all other related industries.
More importantly, Jiang Shangzhou saw that Shanghai possessed the capability to manufacture large aircraft—as early as the 1970s, Shanghai had independently produced the "Y-10" large civil airliner and had engaged in multiple collaborations with American company McDonnell Douglas, accumulating rich technical experience.
To this end, he pushed back against dissent and organized a three-year-long discussion within academia and industry.
For three years, Jiang Shangzhou shuttled constantly between Shanghai and Beijing until February 26, 2006, when the State Council approved the project, listing "Large Aircraft" as a national science and technology major special project.
The C919 passenger aircraft project took its first step.
Jiang Shangzhou dealt with major undertakings, but he was also someone who did not know how to "play the official game." His political career can be described as full of twists and turns.
Before the age of 40, Jiang Shangzhou was just a "scholar." In 1965, he was admitted to the Radio Department of Tsinghua University, but due to the "Cultural Revolution," he spent only a little over nine months at the university.
For over a decade, he never stopped studying. He and his classmate, later his wife Wu Qidi (former Vice Minister of Education), taught themselves university courses. In 1978, both returned to their alma mater as graduate students. They later became among the first intellectuals to study abroad since the reform and opening-up.
In 1987, Jiang Shangzhou came to Sanya, Hainan.
This was a new city that had just been upgraded from a county-level city. The entire city of Sanya had no more than 1,000 telephones, and phone numbers were only three digits.
Eight years of overseas study had endowed Jiang Shangzhou with forward-looking strategic vision. However, precisely because it was "ahead of its time," he was often controversial and misunderstood.
For example, he wanted to build a science city in Sanya, creating China's "Hawaii." However, in 1990, the GDP of mainland China was only $387.8 billion, while Hong Kong, with a population of just over 5 million, had a GDP as high as 20% of the mainland's.
At that time, China needed to solve the problem of feeding and clothing 1.1 billion people. The importance of high-tech industries and a tourism economy was still difficult for most to comprehend.
Concepts like creating urban public spaces and establishing land transaction systems, commonplace in urban management today, also faced significant resistance at the time for being "too advanced."
Consequently, Jiang Shangzhou lost the election for Vice Mayor of Sanya in 1989. Interestingly, at that time, his father Jiang Yizhen was the Vice President of the "Hainan Development Promotion Association," yet his son serving in Hainan lost the election.
Interestingly, after losing, he did not choose to leave but continued to work as the Mayor's Assistant, striving to steer Sanya towards becoming an international tourist city. Relying on this pragmatic work, Jiang Shangzhou was elected Vice Mayor with a high vote count in the 1991 election.
That year was Jiang Shangzhou's third year in politics. At 43, he was as energetic as a 23-year-old, always rushing tirelessly to conduct research at the grassroots level across various regions.
Regrettably, in the debate over focusing on "tourism" or "agriculture," Sanya at the time chose the latter, forcing Jiang Shangzhou to leave. The reality of Sanya today undoubtedly proves Jiang Shangzhou's foresight.
At the urging of Ruan Chongwu, then Party Secretary of Hainan Province, Jiang Shangzhou took up the post of Director of the Yangpu Economic Development Zone Administration.
In 1993, Yangpu was a testing ground for China's reform and opening-up. There, Jiang Shangzhou introduced concepts such as "seek the market, not the mayor" and "minimal administrative intervention, maximum economic freedom."
The experiences accumulated in Yangpu at that time, such as pioneering the civil service examination system, centralized procurement, and public finance, successively took center stage in China's administrative reforms over the following decade.
However, again because it was "too far ahead," Jiang Shangzhou encountered setbacks once more in Yangpu.
It wasn't until September 2007, when the State Council approved the establishment of the Yangpu Bonded Port Area, that Yangpu's development welcomed new opportunities. This seemed to affirm Jiang Shangzhou's earlier pioneering efforts in Yangpu, but by then, he had long since left Hainan for Shanghai.
Because it was too threatening, SMIC faced repeated sniping from industry leader TSMC from its inception, leading to high compensation demands.
In 2009, one of its founders, Zhang Rujing, was forced to leave the company. Jiang Shangzhou was appointed Chairman to handle the crisis, but what no one knew was that he was already in the late stages of lung cancer.
Facing this predicament, Jiang Shangzhou's stress was unimaginable. Although barely holding on, he never ceased pondering the development of China's chip industry.
"In terms of semiconductor processes, we don't necessarily have to master everything. As long as we lead in a few areas ahead of foreign countries, we can forge our own development path."
This might have been Jiang Shangzhou's final advice to China's chip industry in the last years of his life. On June 27, 2011, Jiang Shangzhou passed away due to illness. Subsequently, SMIC quickly descended into chaos. During a two-year period of internal strife, senior executives left one after another, and development nearly stalled.
During the same period, the national chip industry was also experiencing its darkest hour. It wasn't until 2014, when the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, with a scale of hundreds of billions, was established, that the entire industry gradually emerged from the gloom and embarked on a new glorious journey.
Therefore, whether it was the ARJ21 regional jet (which formally entered market operation in 2015) or the C919 passenger aircraft, Jiang Shangzhou did not live to see the day they truly soared in the skies.
Looking back on Jiang Shangzhou's life, from a世俗 (worldly) perspective, he might be seen as a tragic "loser." However, he was also a true behind-the-scenes hero.
Relying on the foundation laid by Jiang Shangzhou back then, today's Shanghai has become a pioneer in integrated circuits and China's commercial aviation.
In 2025, the overall scale of Shanghai's integrated circuit industry exceeded 570 billion yuan, ranking first among Chinese cities for many consecutive years.
Today, Shanghai is the region with the most complete integrated circuit industry chain and the highest comprehensive technical level in China. From design, manufacturing, packaging and testing to materials and equipment, Shanghai has leading companies deployed in all five key areas of the chip industry chain.
SMIC, AMEC, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE), Unisoc, Shanghai Simgui...... These enterprises, which were more or less "supported" by Jiang Shangzhou, represent China's hopes for breaking through blockades in different fields of the chip industry.
The large aircraft project, first advocated and landed by Jiang Shangzhou, has also seen the C919 aircraft series from COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China) long since embarked on the journey of commercializing domestically produced passenger aircraft, becoming a new calling card for Chinese manufacturing.
Looking back, Jiang Shangzhou never "chased trends." Instead, he maintained an exceptionally calm attitude towards Shanghai's positioning and the real economy.
Jiang Shangzhou believed that Shanghai, as one of the world's most densely concentrated regions for manufacturing resources, should strive to occupy industrial high ground and drive the upgrading and adjustment of traditional industries nationwide.
Now, when we remember Jiang Shangzhou, what are we remembering?
We appreciate his strategic vision, admire his pragmatic and progressive character, and also regret that his great ambition remained unfulfilled, "his task unfinished, his body perished first." His achievements benefit the present, his contributions extend for generations; perhaps his life is the best testament to this.
"The government needs a group of people whose eyes are fixed on change and the forefront. The changes he brings to the economy may not be reflected in the present moment but play a crucial role in development over the next 30 years." In the eyes of his friend Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Jiang Shangzhou was "ahead of his time his whole life."
This article is from WeChat Official Account: 华商韬略 , author: 华商韬略
