Huawei's latest surprise and an unexpected avatar

Hi everyone! This is Lauly from Taipei, still recovering from the mental shock of the biggest earthquake to hit Taiwan since 1999.

The tech supply chain on the island, which includes everything from chips and printed circuit boards to displays and final product assembly, was definitely more resilient than I was -- most operations were back to normal in less than 48 hours.

The earthquake isn't the only shock I've had lately. Last week I had lunch with a longtime source who works at a production equipment maker. The main reason we were meeting up was because the source had just been laid off, collateral damage, they said, from Apple's decision to scrap a yearslong project to develop microLED displays.

Apple has invested at least $1 billion in microLED R&D and even made a push into the actual manufacturing of the cutting-edge display technology. Sources told me that the project was canceled because production yield was far from satisfactory, adding that this affected several suppliers that had invested heavily over the past several years.

"My company spent some 15 to 20 minutes and used three slides to tell us that they are closing the entire department related to displays. Hundreds of people are affected," the source told me over lunch.

Another shock was that incoming Taiwanese president William Lai Ching-te had apparently wanted T.H. Tung, chairman of key iPhone assembler Pegatron, to be his premier.

Local media and several of my industry sources said the chairman was Lai's first choice and he almost took the offer before eventually turning it down for family reasons. Lai, who takes office next month, announced last week that Cho Jung-tai, the former chairman of the China-skeptic Democratic Progressive Party, will be premier.

Th