Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) on Tuesday announced plans to expand production capacity in Tainan for its most advanced 3-nanometer chips. It also announced plans to build 2-nanometer plants in Hsinchu and Taichung, with operations scheduled to start in 2025.
TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) told the firm’s annual general meeting in Hsinchu that he hopes Taiwan’s semiconductor industry would have “a stabilizing effect on global geopolitical conflict.”
After all, China and the US “hope that TSMC is around,” Liu said.
TSMC is often touted as the biggest part of Taiwan’s “silicon shield” and among all the talk of impending doom due to a hypothesized invasion by China, investors and multinationals continue to demonstrate faith in Taiwan’s continued prosperity.
Nobody confused about the apparent contradiction between portents of Armageddon and investor tenacity would have been surprised by a report by the Nikkei Asia published on April 27 that said multinational corporations are including provisions in contracts covering a possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait, business disruptions caused by cross-strait tensions and US sanctions affecting assets in Taiwan if Washington were to say they were under Beijing’s control after an invasion.
Even the whiff of cross-strait tensions sets investors on edge, but the repercussions of actual hostilities breaking out, as Liu alluded to, are something that nobody wants, be they Taiwanese, the Chinese Communist Party or the international community.
The Global Economic Disruptions From a Taiwan Conflict report published by the Rhodium Group in December last year offered what it called a partial and conservative analysis of the outcome of a hypothetical conflict in the Taiwan Strait, which it said would start with “a blockade of Taiwan by China that halts all trade between Taiwan and the rest of the world.” A blockade would put “well over” US$2 trillion of annual economic activity at risk, even before military escalation or the imposition of international sanctions, the report said.
In addition to the economic shock within China, foreign investors dumping Chinese securities, the tightening of capital controls by Beijing to prevent investors from moving money offshore and the probable pause of financing for Belt and Road Initiative projects, by far the biggest effect would be from the strangled supply of chips from Taiwan, and the massive disruption and shortages it would bring to downstream industries, Rhodium said.
These are just predictions of economic disruptions. The clash between China and allies coming to Taiwan’s defense would be far worse, but awareness of the likely economic disruptions has rallied significant sections of the international community to voice support for Taiwan and stress the importance of maintaining peace.
This is part of a process Beijing refers to as the “internationalization” of the Taiwan issue. While internationalization is a catalyst for awareness of Taiwan’s plight and importance, it also increases tensions. Beijing is not happy with the internationalization of a relationship that it has worked so hard to portray as an “internal matter.”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) believes that pandering to Beijing’s portrayal is the best way to ensure peace, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), especially under President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), believes that internationalization is the best way forward.
How will next year’s presidential election — presuming it is either a KMT or DPP victory — change the calculus? If Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) genuinely prefers a peaceful solution — to avoid the insanity of war and the massive, crippling disruptions it would bring — would he be willing to negotiate with a DPP government?
Since Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) arrival in Taiwan on May 26, he has dominated headlines across multiple local news outlets. Rather than speaking English, he has been seen several times conversing with locals in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), a local language no longer commonly used by the public. Due to his growing popularity and use of Hoklo, issues surrounding the preservation of native languages have resurfaced. Contrary to the stigmatizing belief that Hoklo is merely a language spoken by the uneducated, Huang’s actions have inspired many of his fans to revive their respective mother tongues. Unfortunately, even
The pro-China camp in Taiwan is apparently displeased with Nvidia Corp founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), and an Internet celebrity even searched for and disclosed his personal information online. Such disapproval was not only due to Huang using the word “country” to describe Taiwan or his praise for the nation’s technology industry, but also because his very existence implies support for Taiwan. After reforms in the Tang (唐) and Song (宋) dynasties, the class system of the “four occupations” — academic, farmer, worker and businessperson — took shape in China. Prior to the changes, businesspeople held influential roles in China. The
Beijing’s goals in last month’s China-Japan-South Korea Ninth Trilateral Summit were to repair and strengthen its relations with Seoul and Tokyo, as a way of counterbalancing US influence. In a climate where public sentiment is shifting against the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is attempting to break up the US alliances in Asia and Europe. The outcome of the trilateral summit is more symbolic than substantive, as both South Korea and Japan remain under threat from Beijing and are unlikely to pivot away from the US. This was evidenced by a statement after the US-Japan-South Korea Trilateral Ministerial
Taiwan has long proven its value and significance in the world’s hardware supply chain, after 40 years of focusing on developing electronics as diverse as tiny chips and massive server racks. The nation’s most recent rise to prominence in tech is linked to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, which is easing worries that Taiwan might lose its competitive edge because of its overdependence on IT hardware. The recognition from the world’s technology heavyweights at the Computex Taipei trade show last week was a clear sign. Intel Corp CEO Pat Gelsinger gave a new definition for IT at the show: “Intel and