More Taiwanese firms that used to focus their attention on the Chinese market have shifted their focus to California, where technological clusters have expanded from Silicon Valley to other hubs in the south, said Richard Chang (張揚展), director of the Science and Technology Division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles.

Chang has been stationed in Los Angeles since late 2012 after working in Canada, the US and Germany.

Before those overseas assignments, he was program director of European affairs at the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taipei.

Chang, who plans to retire next year, discussed his observation about the changing technological landscape on the US’ west coast with the Taipei Times earlier this month.

With their previous focus on the Chinese market, some Taiwan-based firms paid relatively little attention to California and vice versa, but things have changed due to the impact of the US-China trade dispute, he said.

Many US institutions have become more cautious about Chinese researchers due to concerns about sensitive technology and intellectual property, which in turn allows Taiwanese more space for development, he said.

While Silicon Valley in northern California used to be the seat of most leading technology firms, its high rent and heavy traffic have driven some businesses to search for locations in southern California, where many prestigious institutions, such as California Institute of Technology, the University of California, Los Angeles and Scripps Research, have paved the way for industrial innovation, he said.

Apart from Hollywood-related firms, Los Angeles is also home to many content providers and software developers, while Google, Apple, Netflix and Snap have established offices there, making the city a hotbed for innovative ideas, he said.

Aerospace company SpaceX built its headquarters near Los Angeles International Airport, while aerospace giant Raytheon set up a space and airborne systems center nearby, he said.

Smartphone chip giant Qualcomm and biotechnology conglomerate Illumina chose San Diego, enticing other firms to form industrial ecosystems in their vicinity, he said.

Describing his own role as a “glue” among tech-related actors, Chang named two Taiwanese firms that are shining on the global stage from their bases in southern California.

Founded by Gene Lay (賴正光) in 2002, BioLegend, which produces antibodies and reagents for immunotherapy, cancer therapy and neuromedicine, is the second-largest biotech firm in San Diego, with branch offices in Japan, Germany, France and the UK, he said.

Lay has kept a relatively low profile in Taiwanese expat circles, while his conception of the biotech industry proved more reliable than those of most Taiwanese players, Chang said.

Just as Lay hopes to supply biotech products “from research to cure,” Taiwan’s biotech industry should not only think about making new drugs, he said.

Knowing that Lay hopes to contribute to Taiwan, Chang helped him search for a venue to set up BioLegend’s second overseas research center in Taiwan, in addition to the one in Japan.

After visiting several sites, Lay decided to build the center in Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park (新竹生物醫學園區) and would require at least one-third of its 150 employees to have doctoral degrees in related areas in a bid to maintain the firm’s edge in research, Chang said.