As bad public relations go, things could not have gone much worse for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker.

In April, a group of angry former employees surrounded the house of Morris Chang, TSMC chairman, to protest at what they claimed was unfair dismissal. TSMC had long been admired as the dream employer for Taiwanese engineers, and the 77 year-old Mr Chang venerated as the kindly old pioneer of Taiwan’s high-tech manufacturing industry.