Caught between US and China, this star chipmaker doesn't want to pick sides

For now Liu can afford to rebuff pressure - direct or indirect - to cut off Huawei and expand in the US

You’ve got to feel for Mark Liu. The chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. just wants to make chips.

And he does; the best chips for the best companies in the world. Unfortunately, one of his clients is Huawei Technologies Co. So it’s not surprising that the world’s largest contract chipmaker has found itself in something of a pickle. 

On the one hand, you’ve got officials in Washington repeatedly asking Taiwan’s government to restrain TSMC from selling chips to Huawei, as the Financial Times reported Monday, citing government sources in both the US and Taiwan. The Chinese electronics giant —