Taiwan's money is leaving China fast, and companies still betting on the Chinese market are being left behind — good news for Kaohsiung, bad for central Taiwan's old export industries.

• Three Taiwanese companies hit the $10,000-per-share mark this year, and two of them are based in Kaohsiung.
• Kaohsiung's push into AI has pulled in TSMC and ASE, with new industrial parks now packed with chip material, equipment, packaging and design firms.
• Companies built around selling into China — shoes, bicycles, tires, machine tools — are struggling as Chinese demand weakens and price wars grind down margins.
• Taiwan's share of investment going to China has collapsed from almost all of it in 2012 to under 1% in early 2026.
• Want Want's Hong Kong-listed shares broke below HK$3, a sign of how hard the China-focused players are being hit.

Outlook: Firms and local leaders still chasing growth in China are likely to sit at the bottom for a long time, while the chip and AI cluster around Kaohsiung keeps pulling ahead.