Human Circuits in Cold War Taiwan: RCA, Labour Governance, and the Developmental State

Industrial development depends on institutions that organise technological learning and govern production. In Cold War Taiwan, these institutions also shaped who could challenge industrial harm. Drawing on field research, interviews, legal records, and institutional histories, this article argues that Taiwan’s developmental capacity was selective. A paired history of RCA Taiwan and the separate RCA-ITRI technology transfer project shows how investment promotion and labour governance privileged officially selected industrial objectives over workers’ independent authority. Public sponsorship equipped semiconductor learning with personnel, facilities, and foreign knowledge. Labour administration, managed representation, and corporate control of hazard information restricted workers’ demands for protection. Pay, housing, and production routines made exposure difficult to avoid, while repeated inspections failed to secure compliance. Missing records, withheld information, and corporate restructuring then obstructed compensation claims. Workers and their supporters challenged these barriers by assembling legal, scientific, and archival resources. Their struggle places labour protection within the history of developmental capacity, alongside the acquisition of technology.