Taiwan’s strategic importance lies in its advanced semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, analysts told a security dialogue held in Taipei on Thursday.
Ivan Kanapathy, a nonresident expert at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said that Taiwan produces the world’s most advanced semiconductors, adding that its manufacturing capacity in the sector is dominant.
“That’s why Taiwan matters in this global security context,” said Kanapathy, who served on the US National Security Council from March 2018 to July 2021 under then-US president Donald Trump.
Photo: CNA
While China is trying to challenge Taiwan’s status as a chip manufacturing powerhouse, it is still three to five years behind, he added.
However, South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University academic Kwon Seok-joon said that while Taiwan boasts advanced semiconductor technology, it was not without weaknesses.
While the semiconductor industry is Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” its dominance had been seen by some quarters in the US as “a monopoly,” said Kwon, a chemical engineering professor.
The US government would try to “alleviate this kind of monopoly on chipmaking in Taiwan” by rolling out measures to protect its own industry, he added.
In addition, Taiwan lacks sufficient renewable and carbon-free energy sources that semiconductor and other high-tech companies are increasingly in need of, he said, adding that the nation had placed too much emphasis on fossil fuel-based power.
Taiwan is also vulnerable to natural disasters and geopolitical threats from China, he added.
Meanwhile, some analysts at the event said China would continue to work toward its “rejuvenation,” striving for global dominance, despite facing domestic challenges.
“China is already one of the most influential regional, global players, and, looking into the future ... we will see a China that will continue to seek to increase its influence,” CSIS China affairs researcher Bonny Lin said.
As Beijing views the US as trying to “stir up a conflict in its periphery” and growing instability worldwide, it would prepare itself to do more to protect and advance its interests, Lin said.
In the next 10 to 15 years, Beijing would become “less tolerant” but “more assertive” and “more willing” to use military and other means to protect its national interests, particularly its territorial and sovereignty claims, she said.
China “will still want to achieve its rejuvenation goals” and be able to “lead internationally,” despite its internal problems, including an economic downturn and high unemployment rate, Lin said.
Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada research and strategy vice president Vina Nadjibulla said that Beijing’s one key response to what it sees as the US seeking to “suppress” and “contain” it is to build its own international groupings.
She said she disagrees that China is becoming increasingly isolated, arguing it had been trying to “fortify itself from the West” and “fully integrate itself” with the non-Western world.
She described intergovernmental organizations such as the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where China plays a major role, as “grievance platforms” for countries dissatisfied with a world order dominated by Western leaders.
The event was cohosted by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a government-funded think tank, and the Mainland Affairs Council.
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