On Monday, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) welcomed a delegation led by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb to the Presidential Office. It marked the third visit to Taiwan by a senior US official this month, following visits by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a delegation led by US Senator Ed Markey.
Holcomb’s delegation signed two memorandums of understanding on economic cooperation and trade relations between Taiwan and Indiana, making the US’ 17th-most populous state Taiwan’s first “sister state.” However, the visit represented much more than just a twinning of Taiwan and Indiana.
On Aug. 6, US President Joe Biden signed into law the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The act seeks to promote semiconductor research, development and production in the US, and to bolster US supply chain security. This is of strategic importance for the US: Microchips are the new oil that lubricates the arteries of the global economy in the 21st century and are integral to everything from smartphones to data centers and cutting-edge military hardware.
Indiana has a long pedigree in microelectronics. Frederick Terman, one of the founders of Silicon Valley, was born in Indiana. Egyptian American Mohamed Atalla, who invented the world’s first commercially viable semiconductor, was educated at Indiana’s Purdue University. The university recently established the Krach Institute for Technology Diplomacy, in addition to a new Semiconductor Degrees Program. The state stands to become a key beneficiary of the CHIPS Act and the renaissance of the US’ semiconductor industry.
In a deft piece of technology diplomacy, Tsai gave Taiwanese semiconductors the pithy epithet “democracy chips,” and said that Taiwan stands ready to increase cooperation with democratic partners around the world to build sustainable semiconductor supply chains.
It is certainly no accident that democratic Taiwan, with its free markets and free flow of ideas, has mastered the art of high-end chip production, while authoritarian China’s state-funded semiconductor “national champions” are floundering in a sea of corruption and misdirected capital.
Taiwan’s world-beating semiconductor industry is often referred to by Taiwanese as a “sacred mountain protecting the nation” (護國神山). Since the Tsai administration appears to be gearing up to trade the nation’s precious semiconductor know-how for diplomatic gains, some might ask: If Taiwan helps its main ally diversify risk by building semiconductor fabs in the US, surely Taiwan would over time forfeit its technological advantage and devalue its currency in the eyes of Washington? Fortunately, Taiwan represents much more than a silicon megafactory, and possesses two other protective amulets:
First, Taiwan is a geostrategic island fortress. Situated in the middle of the first island chain, Taiwan prevents China’s navy — in particular its nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines — from having free rein in the Pacific Ocean.
Second, following Beijing’s destruction of freedoms in Hong Kong, Taiwan is the last one standing: the only remaining example of a pluralistic, democratic, Chinese-speaking society in the world. Taiwan continues to provide China’s disaffected and downtrodden populace with an alternative vision, free from the shackles of the Chinese Communist Party mafia state — and punctures the lie that Chinese cannot handle freedom and that they require the strong discipline of a whipping hand or the nation would descend into chaos and abject poverty.
Tsai’s leveraging of Taiwan’s silicon advantage should prove to be an astute move that will bring tangible diplomatic benefits to the nation. Moreover, the trend of “reshoring” is unstoppable: Tsai might as well ensure that Taiwan secures the largest possible piece of the pie.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry