TAIPEI, Taiwan — The job offer from a Chinese semiconductor company was appealing. A higher salary. Work trips to explore new technologies.

台湾台北——一家中国的半导体公司提供的工作机会很有吸引力。薪水更高。还可以公费出差去考察新技术。

No matter that it would be less prestigious for Kevin Li than his job in Taiwan at one of the world’s leading chip makers. Mr. Li eagerly moved to northeast China in 2018, taking part in a wave of corporate migration as the Chinese government moved aggressively to build up its semiconductor industry.

但对凯文·李来说，开出的条件再好，还是不如他在台湾一家全球领先的芯片制造商上班体面。2018年，中国政府大力发展半导体行业之际，凯文·李迫不及待地搬到中国东北，成为一波企业迁徙潮中的一员。

He went back to Taiwan after two years, as Covid-19 swept through China and global tensions intensified. Other highly skilled Taiwanese engineers are going home, too.

两年后，随着新冠疫情席卷中国，全球紧张局势加剧，他回到了台湾。其他一些掌握高技能的台湾工程师也纷纷打道回府。

For many, the strict pandemic measures have been tiresome. Geopolitics has made the job even more fraught, with China increasingly vocal about staking its claim on Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy. The Taiwanese government has begun to discourage local engineers from going to China, concerned that they were taking proprietary information with them.

“Some who went to work in China were villains who exchanged secrets for money,” said Mr. Li, 40. “Some wanted to be free from the work pressures in Taiwan. And there were those who seriously wanted to explore new areas.”

“过去（中国工作）的人，就是一些带机密换财富的小人，”40岁的凯文·李说。“有想脱离在台湾工作压力的人，有认真想去拓荒的人。”

The prospects that enticed Taiwanese engineering talent to China, feeding a pipeline for lagging Chinese semiconductor companies hoping to compete with global rivals, are rapidly diminishing.

吸引台湾工程人才到中国、为希望参与全球竞争但处于落后的中国半导体企业提供人才管道的前景正在迅速消失。

Semiconductors are now vital strategic assets in the pitched geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. As Washington tries to crimp China’s capacity to make advanced chips, Taiwan, the world’s biggest producer of high-end semiconductors, finds itself at the center of what some are calling the 21st century’s version of the arms race. While President Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, adopted a warmer tone at their first face-to-face presidential meeting this week, it was clear that Taiwan remained a serious point of contention between the two countries.

在美中激烈的地缘政治竞争中，半导体现在是至关重要的战略资产。随着华盛顿试图削弱中国制造先进芯片的能力，世界上最大的高端半导体生产地——台湾——发现自己处于一些人所谓的21世纪版军备竞赛的中心。虽然拜登总统和中国国家主席习近平在本周举行的双方首次面对面会晤中采取了较为温和的语气，但很明显，台湾仍然是两国之间一个严重的争议点。

Taiwan itself faces increasing unease in Washington. The secretary of commerce, Gina Raimondo, and others have said that, even though the United States continues to support Taiwan militarily, it needs to be less dependent on the island democracy for the chips needed in sophisticated weapons.

台湾自身在华盛顿也面临着日益加剧的不安。商务部长吉娜·雷蒙多等人表示，虽然美国继续在军事上支持台湾，但它需要在先进武器所需的芯片方面减少对这个民主岛屿的依赖。

Sweeping bans imposed by the Biden administration last month targeting China’s chip industry have put the island’s premier chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, on the front line of likely disruptions to the global supply chain. Adding to the pressure, the Biden administration has pressed TSMC into building a plant in Arizona to help diversify the United States’ sources of chips.

拜登政府上个月对中国芯片行业实施全面禁令，将台湾主要的芯片制造商台积电推到了可能出现的全球供应链扰动的前沿。此外，拜登政府还向台积电施压，要求它在亚利桑那州设厂，帮助美国实现芯片来源的多元化。

Beijing has blasted the new rules, saying they “will not only harm Chinese companies’ legitimate rights and interests but also hurt the interests of U.S. companies.” And the Chinese government, which is pushing its own strategy of self-reliance in key areas like semiconductors, is expected to retaliate in ways that could punish TSMC.

北京抨击了美国的新举措，称它们“不仅损害了中国企业的合法权益，也会对美国企业造成严重影响”。中国政府正在半导体等关键领域推行自力更生战略，预计它将以可能波及台积电的方式进行报复。

The Chinese government, for example, could bar the American companies that build data centers in China from using high-end chips manufactured by TSMC, said Jason Hsu, a former Taiwanese legislator who is now at the Harvard Kennedy School.

例如，中国政府可以禁止在中国建立数据中心的美国公司使用台积电生产的高端芯片，台湾前立法委员、现就职于哈佛大学肯尼迪学院的许毓仁表示。

So far, TSMC said, the impact of the new rules has been limited. The administration granted a one-year waiver to the company, allowing it to continue expanding its facility in the Chinese city of Nanjing. TSMC also has a plant in Shanghai.

But Washington has barred Chinese and Taiwanese engineers with U.S. citizenship or a green card from working in China’s chip-making facilities. The ban will force about 200 Chinese and Taiwanese engineers to either leave China or give up their U.S. citizenship, Mr. Hsu said.

但华盛顿禁止拥有美国国籍或绿卡的中国大陆和台湾工程师在中国的芯片制造工厂工作。许毓仁说，这项禁令将迫使大约200名大陆和台湾工程师离开中国或放弃其美国公民身份。

“This has such a chilling effect on every Taiwanese national working in the semiconductor industry in China. Everyone is on edge,” Mr. Hsu said. “What if a U.S. government intelligence agency thinks you are violating U.S. security and wants to arrest you?”

“这让每一个在中国半导体行业工作的台湾人都产生了寒蝉效应。所有人都很紧张，”许毓仁说。“如果美国政府情报机构认为你侵犯了美国的安全，要逮捕你，怎么办？”

For years, China poached Taiwan’s semiconductor engineers, who often have Ph.D.s and are essential to keeping the world’s most advanced chip-making factories humming.

多年来，中国大陆一直在挖走台湾的半导体工程师，这些工程师通常拥有博士学位，对维持世界上最先进的芯片制造工厂的运转至关重要。

In 2019, about 3,000 Taiwanese semiconductor engineers were working in China, nearly 10 percent of the 40,000 engineers at the heart of the industry’s work force, according to the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, an independent group.

A handful of senior executives also joined rival Chinese firms, including the country’s most prestigious, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, or SMIC, which is based in Shanghai. Chinese state entities are among the company’s major shareholders, and the Pentagon has expressed concerns that SMIC has ties to the Chinese military. SMIC did not respond to requests for comment.

少数高管也加入了中国竞争对手的公司，包括中国最负盛名的中芯国际，其总部位于上海。中芯国际的主要股东包括了政府实体，五角大楼对中芯国际与中国军方有联系表示了担忧。中芯国际没有回应记者的置评请求。

One former TSMC executive, Liang Mong-song, a prized engineer who had been the company’s director of research and development, joined SMIC as co-chief executive in 2017. Last year, China’s state-run media reported that Mr. Liang led a team of engineers who developed SMIC’s seven-nanometer chip technology, a more advanced chip than the company had previously made, and a sudden breakthrough that partly drove the Biden administration to announce its new rules.

Another former TSMC senior executive, Chiang Shang-yi, had hoped to work on a new method of producing microchips at the Shanghai company. In an interview this year with the Computer History Museum in California, he said going to China was “one of the foolish things” that he had done. Mr. Chiang left SMIC last year.

Taking a job at a Chinese company has always been dicey for Taiwanese engineers, said Syaru Shirley Lin, a Taiwanese economist and a former partner at Goldman Sachs specializing in the tech industry. “People would say, ‘Did you go there?’” she said. “Soon, it will be like going to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.”

曾在高盛担任科技行业合伙人的台湾经济学家林夏如说，对台湾工程师来说，在大陆公司工作一直是件冒险的事。“人们会说，‘你去过那里吗？’”她说。“很快，就会像去冷战时期的苏联一样。”

Evonne Wang, 31, looked for a job in China to broaden her experience beyond TSMC.

31岁的伊芳·王在中国找了一份工作，以扩大自己在台积电以外的经验。

Several headhunting firms offered her opportunities, but she settled on an American company based in China. She figured that if she went to a Chinese company her reputation might be tarnished when she returned home.

几家猎头公司给她提供了机会，但她最终选择了一家设在中国的美国公司。她想，如果她去了一家中国公司，回台湾后她的声誉可能会受损。

“Some Taiwanese semiconductor companies have qualms about previous experiences of working in China,” said Ms. Wang, who also returned to Taiwan as Covid took hold.

“有的台湾半导体公司会对之前在中国的工作经验有疑虑，”伊芳·王说，她也在新冠疫情暴发时返回了台湾。

With China making industry advances, Taiwan has begun to take measures to stop the brain drain and protect a core economic driver. The island’s economy grew more than 6 percent last year, in part from the surge in global demand for semiconductors.

随着中国大陆工业的进步，台湾已开始采取措施，阻止人才流失，保护一个核心经济驱动力。台湾经济去年增长超过6%，部分原因是全球对半导体的需求激增。

Gin Chang, 30, a Taiwanese engineer who worked in southern China for a year and doubled his salary, said he understood the growing unease in Taiwan about its young engineers’ contributing to China’s growth.

30岁的台湾工程师金·张（音）在中国南方工作了一年，工资翻了一番。他说，他理解台湾对其年轻工程师为中国经济增长做出贡献而日益感到不安。

“I don’t think there should be restrictions on us working in China,” Mr. Chang said. “But from the perspective of the government in Taiwan, if the Chinese economy grows because of its growing semiconductor industry, then Taiwan’s economic situation could be endangered.”

“我认为我们在中国工作不应该受到限制，”金·张说。“但从台湾政府的角度来看，如果中国大陆经济增长是因为其不断增长的半导体产业，那么台湾的经济形势可能会受到威胁。”

Under regulations introduced in early 2021, headhunters in Taiwan are barred from advertising jobs in China’s microchip industry. The Ministry of Justice established a task force that ordered raids on Chinese firms operating in Taiwan. The Chinese companies were suspected of being fronts created to recruit local engineers for jobs in China; more than 40 cases of poaching workers and stealing secrets have been prosecuted since last year, the government said in September.

根据2021年初出台的规定，台湾猎头公司不得发布关于中国微芯片行业的招聘广告。台湾法务部成立了一个特别工作组，会受命突查在台运营的中国企业。这些中国企业被怀疑是为招聘当地工程师到中国工作而设的幌子；台湾政府9月表示，自去年以来，已经起诉了40多起挖角和窃密案件。

Much of the poaching involved Chinese companies trying to capture Taiwanese expertise, applying that knowledge in their plants and then ditching the workers, said one headhunter, Michael Lo.

一位名叫迈克尔·卢（音）的猎头表示，大部分挖角行为都与试图获取台湾专业技能的中国企业有关，它们会将这些知识应用到自己的工厂，然后解雇工人。

“China’s corporate culture is just three words: ‘Raise and kill,’” Mr. Lo said. “It will first cultivate you and spend lots of money and resources on you, then steal your technologies and, finally, fire you,” he said.

“大陆的企业文化就是三个字：养套杀，”迈克尔·卢说。“先培养你，在你身上花很多钱和资源，然后窃取你的技术，最后解雇你。”

Mr. Li, the engineer who went back home, had worked his way up the Taiwanese semiconductor industry. He had four jobs at smaller companies before joining TSMC at its headquarters in Hsinchu Science Park, a campus sometimes known as Taiwan’s Silicon Valley, 30 minutes by high-speed train from Taipei, the capital.

那位回国的工程师凯文·李曾在台湾半导体行业一路摸爬滚打。在加入新竹科学园——该园区有时被称为台湾“硅谷”，从首都台北乘高铁30分钟即可抵达——的台积电总部之前，他曾在规模较小的企业做过四份工作。

TSMC is the pride of Taiwan. Visitors to its main building, set in lush foliage, are greeted by a striking sign with the name of the company’s founder, Morris Chang. One of Taiwan’s multibillionaires, Mr. Chang, 91, grew up in China, attended Harvard and M.I.T. and worked at Texas Instruments before starting TSMC in 1987.

台积电是台湾的骄傲。其主楼坐落于葱郁树林之中，来访者会看到一个醒目的标志，上面写着公司创始人张忠谋的名字。现年91岁的张忠谋是台湾的亿万富豪之一，在中国长大，曾就读于哈佛大学和麻省理工学院。在1987年创办台积电之前，他曾在德州仪器工作。

When Mr. Li arrived at TSMC, he felt lucky but found it a slog inside the foundry, he said.

当凯文·李来到台积电，他说感觉自己很幸运，但发现在代工厂里干活的日子很艰苦。

“I had the feeling of being a small screw most when working in TSMC,” Mr. Li said. “Going to China was like looking forward to a place without the constraints of an outdated framework. You can take the plunge by going there.”

“我在台积时有‘小螺丝钉’的感受，”凯文·李说。“到中国是期待一个没有陈旧框架的束缚，可以放手去干。”

For now, Mr. Li is staying in Taiwan, working for an American chip company operating there and siding with the invigorated patriotic sentiment and the ethos of individual liberty.

目前，凯文·李留在台湾，为一家在台运营的美国芯片企业工作，他支持高涨的爱国情绪，也崇尚个体自由的精神。

“The advantage of working in Taiwan is that you don’t have to worry about officials shutting down the whole company because of one thought,” he said. “The atmosphere is very important. At least I can watch all kinds of programs criticizing the governments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait without worrying about being arrested.”

“台湾工作的优点就是不用担心官员一转念就收掉，”他说。“自由的空气也很重要，至少我可以随便看各种批评两岸的节目，不用担心被抓。”