Comment by swarnie 4 days ago
Is Taiwan's national security the major concern here? I assumed everyone was just bluffing at that until they can get their own supply.
Getting dragging in to an East China unification war because you can't squeeze lighting in to rocks on time is a tragedy.
Who cares? the situation is the same regardless: china wants taiwan, taiwan doesn't want to be a part of china, and the single largest factor blocking china from taking taiwan is TSMC. Not the american navy, not sanctions, not anything else. If TSMC weren't a factor they could simply destroy the island and move in.
This is too simplistic.
The ROC has not had any formal military alliance with the United States since 1979. TSMC was not founded until 1987, didn't start producing chips until 1993. It was not even publicly traded until 1994 (and that was only on the Taiwanese stock exchange; it was listed on the NYSE in 1997).
The reason the PRC hasn't done it is because it would make no sense politically or economically. They have a lot more to lose and a lot less to gain than Russia did in 2014 (Sevastopol was/is seen as integral to the Russian navy...there is no parallel with Taiwan as the PRC has plenty of excellent ports on the mainland).
And the continued existence of Taiwan gives the PRC a convenient excuse to sabre-rattle.
No formal alliance, but in reality, if you look up the proportion of Taiwanese-made chips used by the US military in... everything - aircraft, missiles ,tanks, planes, everything - invading Taiwan would probably cripple the US military's production capabilities so it's probably kicking off a proper war with USA.
I care because I am interested in how language reflects and shapes beliefs and I have never seen that phrase before.
> Are you from China?
No? I'm from the UK if it matters but i have no particular allegiance to east, west or chip manufacturing facilities.
East China / West Taiwan is for lack of a better word, a meme. Unification war i guess i dredged up from 40k
Either way my point stands. Every country that has supported Tiawan is scrambling to get chips online domestically because they don't need to get involved in the start of WW3. To claim otherwise is just disingenuous.
Taiwan forms the first Island chain that currently keeps China's navy constrained.
Loosing Taiwan is tantamount to accepting Chinese military hegemony in SEA and East Asia. No need to export ideology, it's more like if I put up tariffs against Chinese goods to protect domestic business and then a few PLAN warships park up right next to my trade corridors.
Some background:
https://www.defensepriorities.org/explainers/challenges-to-c...
> Is Taiwan's national security the major concern here?
Yes. It’s called “semiconductor shield”. As long as China cannot manufacture chips like those made in Taiwan, it will thread carefully.
> East China unification war
Are you from China? I find this phraseology very odd