Rely on the US, get extorted. The US has no friends, only colonies to exploit and pillage
Wasn't it that demon Kissinger that said something about it being fatal to be an ally to the United States?
Suddenly reunification with the mainland was on the table after years of tactfully avoiding the topic.
Whose asset is this trump character, anyway?
This is all about covering his own blunder.
He's realized his tarrifs aren't doing much to bring manufacturing to the USA, so now he'll threaten to abandon his allies instead if they don't prop up his idiotic economic policy.
Currently the US needs an independent Taiwan because that's where all their chips come from. Makes sense for the US to move production to the US where it's less vulnerable to Chinese takeover, but that also means that the US won't need Taiwan to be independent anymore.
Bingo.
I've been lucky enough to see the real deal in deposition layering testing and research for chip making. From clean-room methods stricter than bio and radiological test lab standards to seeing the wafers with a shimmer even more gorgeous than diamonds to me. It's so far beyond
We just ain't going to manage to make that a nation-wide mainstay. We might be able to have started to approach the technical side of things if investments and education were started in the early 90s, but our culture just isn't up to snuff to keep it going. So much of a society's culture bleeds into business, and damn do they have it locked down where it needs to be.
What states even have the capacity to mildly mass produce that stuff? California, New York, maybe some random New English state?
Well to give you a real answer that would depend on how you look at it. Transport industry tends to favor east coast, but that's mostly thanks to legacy infrastructure.
On the other hand, the past few years of infrastructure bills promoted southwest manufacturing uptick due to easier tax rates, preferred interest from government structures, and as well lower cost workforce that require lower per capita investment for bringing training up to speed.
California had a whole bunch, between strong port access, strong technical expertise, the whole Silicon Valley thing lol.
But given current administration policies, attitudes towards education achievements, and importance of targeted subsidizing, nevermind everything else the past 40 or so years of privatization. It's a lot to catch up on, most of which requires long term planning.
Of course then you could get into the economics side of things, and that the amount invested through our own foreign direct investment brings about greater income in the long run. Basically by subsidizing foreign production of different goods, we don't bear the cost of better research and investment in the future, we can use trade agreements to purchase, say computer chips to keep things consistent, which have stipulations that the exporting country purchase mass quantities of lower trade goods at a price advantageous to us.
So uh, it's pretty much a loose loose situation here lol.
THANK GOD THE MBAS ARE IN CHARGE
LOL. That's not even a real ask. It's like if I walked into work tomorrow and asked for a 200% raise.
The US is scared of the impending doom created when China invades Taiwan and takes over all chip production in a matter of a few months.
Nothing the US has can stop that when it starts, there can only be a deterrent, but that works only so far...
On the other hand it sees a solution to just hamfistedly claim 50% of the chipproduction to be local in the USA, easily forgetting the work ethics of the average American don't fit for that scenario, let alone how the government is wrecking the needed education for a decade or two to come at least...
The odds of China invading Taiwan successfully and a single chip fab still functioning or being recoverable is 0%.
What is it about these chips that makes them so special? Are they for something practical or are they for advanced weapons or AI? Why does a country need them so badly?
The silicon foundries in Taiwan are some of the most advanced in the world right now - they can make manufacture integrated circuits down to a 3nm process node. They're absolutely cutting-edge.
Basically, every phone or consumer electronics processor, memory same solid state storage chip, plus a ton of custom circuits are made there right now. This includes multi-GHz radios (WiFi, radar, sensing technologies, global navigation systems) and a ton of new MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) sensors for gyroscopes, accelerometers, compasses, barometric pressure, gas sensors...
The foundries in Taiwan are absolutely critical to worldwide supply chains and defense. There are rumors that the Taiwan foundries are wired with explosives as a deterrent to Chinese invasion - China wants the foundries but Taiwan will try to deny them if they invade.
How long has this been the case? And do all of those devices need chips with 3nm process nodes? Why can't a slightly inferior chip be used?
You can use an inferior chip, but the few fabs that are out there are many generations behind. Suddenly your cruise missile has reduce accuracy, or range, or detection avoidance etc. Your targeting lock on is slower, your radar doesn't detect as well etc.
The fab Taiwan built in the US is 2-3 generations behind I believe, intentionally, so the most cutting edge stuff was still theirs.
Samsung is the next closest at 7nm if I'm seeing things right and it gets much worse from there and it quickly goes to the teens or higher.
For you and me, it could be like getting laptops/phones 5-10 years old tech wise as there aren't enough of the near level fabs to support everything, and that's not getting into all the fancy things like what Apple does with their SoC, no one else might be able to do that kind of thing.
Currently they make the best ones and are basically the only ones that can. These chips go into most cutting edge electronics such as AI
So they're not really needed by the average person
Taiwan is a major center for chip manufactoring and development. Being a vital supplier for the U.S., Taiwan was protected by the U.S. as far as possible without openly disagreeing with mainland (communist) China. One could argue that Taiwan's chip industry has essentially protected the island from being invaded or nuked by mainland China. Without their advantage in chips and implied cover by the U.S. military, Taiwan would be under direct threat by mainland China "unification".
Didn't answer my question bot
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