Technology

Ah, there it is. America is angling to make Taiwan irrelevant by stealing chip tech. Feels like I've been taking crazy pills as nobody anywhere else talks about this. Taiwan would do well to protect themselves from imperialists. There's nobody looking out for them except themselves.

Everyone (meaning western discourse) is all giddy as if America is saving Taiwan. Soon as they taken chip making tech, Taiwan becomes irrelevant to America.

"Hello, Mr Biden? Hello, Mr Trump? It's Taiwan"
"Tai-who? *click*"

CHIPS was always going to be a giveaway for nothing. It reminds me of that FoxConn CEO's quote about the fact that the US could pay them to fab in America but nothing would actually come of it. Then they just dropped that $10B Wisconsin project as soon as possible.

That was under Trump. Biden literally saw this and doubled down thinking that TSMC would roll over.

Smart move. Never give away your bargaining chip to the US. They will not reward you for it.

I think that's fine. The whole point of getting TSMC to start manufacturing in the US was to ensure that Taiwan wasn't the only place making the chips the world is using considering China has been actively threatening to take Taiwan back for decades. If TSMC can be sustainable in the US and other countries, even if Taiwan falls off the map, the technology is not China's alone. If I were TSMC, I would be trying to build plants in Australia and in Europe and South America to diversify and secure preservation should worse come to worst.