American innovation from smartphones to search engines to gene sequencing, is built on a foundation of impossibly intricate, perfectly etched silicon. But few of those semiconductors are actually made in the US. Only 12 percent of chips sold worldwide were made in the US in 2019, down from 37 percent in 1990. Read More Here
The supply of semiconductors was at risk long before the pandemic, and the virus is only partly to blame for today’s shortages. One of the biggest culprits was a sudden shift in U.S. trade policy. Read More Here
China has no intention of walking away from its claims on Taiwan. The election of pro-independence Tsai Ing-wen as Taiwan’s president in 2016 and her re-election in 2020 has only added another element of hostility from China. Read Here | The National Interest
It may be that in today’s world, when a superpower conflict could destroy much of mankind, China and the US will avoid a war over Taiwan. But the two sides are engaged in a game of chicken, which can escalate quickly and unpredictably, with fear of humiliation making it difficult to back down. Read Here […]
Joe Biden should follow the course set by Donald Trump; there should be no U-turn based on naive hopes that goodwill can temper President Xi Jinping’s growing and increasingly impatient desire to pressure Taiwan into capitulation. Read Here | The National Interest
The US has sent an Indo-Pacific Command intelligence officer to Taiwan on an unannounced visit that is certain to irk Beijing. Analysts said the visit of Rear Admiral Michael Studeman, director of intelligence at the command, was “unusual and unprecedented” and would further push Beijing to take a hardline approach towards the island. Read Here | South […]
Trump’s facilitating an alliance with India and arming Taiwan as a frontier state against a rising China will be his defining legacy, a strategy that will likely continue even if Joe Biden wins the presidency. Read Here | The National Interest
It appears to be the perfect time for Tsai to press Modi on closer ties, but she must be cautious, for however much New Delhi might be watching Beijing’s actions with concern, India still stands to lose much by courting Taiwan. Read Here | Taipei Times
The U.S. military is already strapped for resources trying to police the Indo-Pacific, and this is peacetime. If the United States lost a sizable fraction of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and affiliated joint forces in a contest in the Taiwan Strait—even a triumphant one—its capacity to retain its superpower standing and preside over the liberal […]
A spiralling tech war between the United States and China has reinvigorated Beijing’s ambitions for semiconductor independence in recent months and turbocharged efforts in Washington to thwart its plans, leaving chip-making powerhouse Taiwan caught in the crossfire. Read Here | South China Morning Post
