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Economy Taiwan's Importance Can't Be Overstated - Or Can It? (+ TSMC US Mega-Site)
- Thread starter Deorum
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Eww!
Don't be gross, Prince. And yes, I moved your quote over here. The thread you posted this in is for people to rant about pride month and "sweet man-on-man action", this is the legit geopolitics thread.
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It’s sad to watch cognitive decline in someone you used to respect
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I know, I know. It's left me somewhat conflicted. But this Ukraine situation has, alas, pushed me into definitive strategic and moral opposition to the West.
Plus, we're due to have protests/riots here tomorrow, over fuel price increases that have come about as a result of the West's self-destructive sanctions on Russia. African leaders are in talks with Russia to build trade paths around Western sanctions for food and fuel, but until those deals have been finalised and Russia can ride to the rescue, you bright-sparks are starving my neighbours.
I have a lot of problems with China, but they're not currently starving my countrymen or our neighbours, they're better positioned to be helpful than are the Western powers, their goal is a multi-polar world, and they have leaders who have at least some semblance of an idea of what's going on Planet Earth. As a resident of Africa, a multi-polar world is a better fit for my national interests than the uni-polar world the West hasn't the capability to hold on to. All else being equal, I am, by default, on the side of whoever's promoting a multi-polar world.
More on topic, Taiwanese importance to the West has always been temporary, because it's based on transitory circumstances, but it's important to the Chinese for cultural and historical reasons, so their interest isn't going away. And China is far more important to the world at large and to the economies of the West than Taiwan is.
It would be incredibly stupid for the Western powers to directly intervene in a Chinese attempt on Taiwan. I don't think China will tempt such an intervention though, because reunification is inevitable without military force and the Chinese are probably very aware of how bad that fight would hurt if the West decided to commit to it. It's more likely that the West will desperately force a confrontation in an attempt to offset the inevitable, much like they did in Ukraine. And the West can maybe pull a Ukraine, and convince the Taiwanese to suicidally resist unification - no matter how badly that might go for their country - but sending Western forces against the Chinese might well end the world, whether or not nukes are tossed. So, one can only hope that Western leadership is wise enough to recognise that the technological advantages represented by Taiwain are transient and not actually so significant that they're worth ending the world over.
Far wiser to work out a mutually beneficial backroom deal with the Chinese soon enough that Taiwanese sentiment toward the Chinese is based on a realistic understanding of their strategically precarious position - that is, that the promise of Western cavalry riding over the horizon, in a region in which the West's influence in diminishing, is probably not a realistic expectation. And that, even if it does come, it won't alter the inevitable.
The Western powers are already handing their asses to themselves in their economic war with Russia (to the point that they're having to circumvent their own sanctions while the Russian currency outperforms everyone else's), and the impacts of that squabble are already far-reaching enough; I think we've already seen two governments so far that have been toppled in the wake of the ongoing crisis? Many others are under serious strain. Imagine what a confrontation with China would do.
Unless there are some serious changes in the quality of Western strategic decision-making, and a reversal to the downward trajectory of the West's strategic capability, it's tragically and terrifyingly laughable trying to imagine them taking China on. Even if you think America would win (and it would have to be America, because no other Western power is at all formidable), there's a good chance that it would be a pyrrhic victory that would leave the survivors with a world that might no longer even be modern enough to take full advantage of the high technology that the war will have been fought over.
The West's already in an economic war with the world's commodities super power, picking a fight with the world's manufacturing super power is not a good idea. No matter how valuable Taiwan might temporarily be.
Sanctioning China like they've tried sanctioning Russia would be about as devastating to the world as a medium-scale nuclear war. Scary shit.
What exists of the tech gap between China and the West is going to be closed. That's just going to happen. It might take decades, it might take years. But it's not going to be prevented unless someone starts WW3 and kicks the modern world out from under all of us.
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Taiwan is important to China for more than just technological reasons. The West also likes to use territories like Taiwan as bulwarks against authoritarian regimes, which they can use to deflect conflict toward. It is a high value pawn.
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Intel's foundry is now catching up by making chips for MediaTek.
Intel plans to make chips for Taiwan’s MediaTek to keep up with Asian manufacturing rivals
JUL 26 2022
Intel will manufacture semiconductors for Taiwan’s MediaTek, giving the U.S. company a big boost for its contract chipmaking business.
MediaTek is one of the biggest suppliers of smartphone processers and a rival to Qualcomm. Intel Foundry Services will manufacture multiple chips for MediaTek for a range of smart edge devices, the two companies said on Monday.
After taking over as CEO of Intel last year, Pat Gelsinger made revitalizing the foundry business a key priority in order to catch up with and break the dominance of its Asian rivals TSMC and Samsung. Via its foundry business, Intel will manufacture chips that other companies design. The U.S. giant plans to spend more than $40 billion building fabrication plants around the world.
“The agreement is designed to help MediaTek build a more balanced, resilient supply chain through the addition of a new foundry partner with significant capacity in the United States and Europe,” Intel said in a press release.
NS Tsai, a corporate senior vice president at MediaTek, said the partnership with Intel “provides value” to the company as it seeks “to create a more diversified supply chain.”
TSMC is MediaTek’s main manufacturing partner for chips. It’s unclear what MediaTek semiconductors Intel will be responsible for making.
Chip companies around the world have been focusing on strengthening their supply chains and diversifying production amid a global chip shortage that has persisted since early 2021.
But the manufacturing of the most advanced chips is not something many companies can do and is in fact is dominated by TSMC and Samsung. These two companies account for more than 70% of global foundry revenue, according to TrendForce.
As demand continues to rise for chips, Intel and its Asian rivals plan to ramp up spending on foundries.
But Intel lags far behind, though gaining MediaTek as a customer will give the company a boost. MediaTek had 38% of the smartphone application processor market in the first quarter, making it the biggest company in the segment, according to Counterpoint Research.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/26/int...r-mediatek-in-bid-to-revive-foundry-unit.html
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Wrong topic. Can a mod remove this. My yellow should have dropped off today but it hasn't so still can't edit.
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While Taiwan dominates the mircochip market from what I've heard if push comes to shove they can be replaced. It's leverage but not a chokehold.
Taiwans biggest leverage is being a middle power that's a heavily defended densely populated island. This same dynamic is why Nazi Germany would have needed at least a decade of prep time to just have a chance of successfully invading the UK. Of course Chinas going to get that decade of prep time but it makes the most sense to resolve this peacefully though diplomacy where Taiwan becomes part of China but gets special rights and status due to it's unique history. I've likened my preferred outcome to Bavarias status in the German Empire.
Taiwans biggest leverage is being a middle power that's a heavily defended densely populated island. This same dynamic is why Nazi Germany would have needed at least a decade of prep time to just have a chance of successfully invading the UK. Of course Chinas going to get that decade of prep time but it makes the most sense to resolve this peacefully though diplomacy where Taiwan becomes part of China but gets special rights and status due to it's unique history. I've likened my preferred outcome to Bavarias status in the German Empire.
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Some people believe the CCP controls the White House already.
If that were true it would explain a number of things that have been happening the last few years.
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Taiwan should just tell China that if they try to invade, they'll blow up all their chip plants.
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Intel's foundry is now catching up by making chips for MediaTek.
Intel plans to make chips for Taiwan’s MediaTek to keep up with Asian manufacturing rivals
JUL 26 2022
Intel will manufacture semiconductors for Taiwan’s MediaTek, giving the U.S. company a big boost for its contract chipmaking business.
MediaTek is one of the biggest suppliers of smartphone processers and a rival to Qualcomm. Intel Foundry Services will manufacture multiple chips for MediaTek for a range of smart edge devices, the two companies said on Monday.
After taking over as CEO of Intel last year, Pat Gelsinger made revitalizing the foundry business a key priority in order to catch up with and break the dominance of its Asian rivals TSMC and Samsung. Via its foundry business, Intel will manufacture chips that other companies design. The U.S. giant plans to spend more than $40 billion building fabrication plants around the world.
“The agreement is designed to help MediaTek build a more balanced, resilient supply chain through the addition of a new foundry partner with significant capacity in the United States and Europe,” Intel said in a press release.
NS Tsai, a corporate senior vice president at MediaTek, said the partnership with Intel “provides value” to the company as it seeks “to create a more diversified supply chain.”
TSMC is MediaTek’s main manufacturing partner for chips. It’s unclear what MediaTek semiconductors Intel will be responsible for making.
Chip companies around the world have been focusing on strengthening their supply chains and diversifying production amid a global chip shortage that has persisted since early 2021.
But the manufacturing of the most advanced chips is not something many companies can do and is in fact is dominated by TSMC and Samsung. These two companies account for more than 70% of global foundry revenue, according to TrendForce.
As demand continues to rise for chips, Intel and its Asian rivals plan to ramp up spending on foundries.
But Intel lags far behind, though gaining MediaTek as a customer will give the company a boost. MediaTek had 38% of the smartphone application processor market in the first quarter, making it the biggest company in the segment, according to Counterpoint Research.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/26/int...r-mediatek-in-bid-to-revive-foundry-unit.html
Guess who knew beforehand...
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So Biden does NOT back Taiwan independence? Seems to be a slight shift from their last conversation where Biden said it is up to Taiwan... to now not backing them at all.
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Lolz abd who controlled the last white house? Haha
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I think the official position has always been opposition to any unilateral effort that changes the status quo.
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That's the shitty bit. Once Taiwan has transferred most of it's know how to the US, the US will drop them like a bad penny. They are highly disposable. At that point Taiwan's only hope is that they just aren't an interesting target anymore for One China.
