TSMC

In the event of a Chinese invasion, Taiwan will not let anyone destroy TSMC’s factories

The invasion of the island of Taiwan by China is a possibility that has gained momentum as geostrategic tensions with the United States increase. The Middle Kingdom does not hide its intention to recover one day or another this portion of a territory which it considers as its own and the slightest provocation could give it the opportunity to implement this intention.

Behind the political agitations, there are also economic motives. Taiwan is the land of TSMC founder a leader in the production of electronic chips, and its production plants using the techniques of finest engraving on the market constitute an issue that China could be tempted to recover for its own benefit.

For several years now, the United States has blocked Chinese ambitions to develop a strong semiconductor industry by hindering access to advanced technologies and factories.

Can China get its hands on the factories?...China is thus blocked at the 14 nm node (or even 7 nm by exploiting old engraving techniques to their limits) and cannot in principle access the technology allowing finer engraving, in particular thanks to EUV lithography.

Getting hold of the TSMC factories during a takeover of Taiwan is therefore a scenario to be taken into account and likely to reshuffle the cards, while the efforts to relocate the means of production to the United States and in Europe are only in their infancy.

The president of TSMC had already stressed last year that taking direct control of the factories would not be enough to make them work properly, as their operation depends on multiple international resources which would be interrupted.

But that would probably not prevent China from looting sites and recovering equipment as well as valuable information on chip manufacturing processes.

In this hypothesis, the United States could be led to preemptively bomb TSMC factories in the event of an open conflict, according to a former national security adviser to the Trump administration.

Will the US have a choice in the event of a conflict?...And it’s not just a figment of the imagination. In the Taiwanese media, the Minister of National Defense indicated that Taiwan will not tolerate US destruction of TSMC sites in the context of a conflict with China, despite the proximity that brings them together in the face of the risk of an invasion.

The natural alliance between Taiwan and the USA could find there a point of contention and the Taiwanese government thus seems to be reacting to remarks by American Congressman Seth Moulton who would like to use this threat as an argument intended to curb a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

But if the island does not intend to become an expiatory victim of Sino-American tensions, it would undoubtedly be difficult to avoid American pragmatism freed from its diplomatic constraints and careful that China remains in a position of inferiority in the field of microchips.

The principle of national securityat the heart of the various initiatives against China, will undoubtedly risk prevailing in such a context, so as not to risk seeing the other superpower surpass it in semiconductors, and by extension in many scientific, high-tech and military fields.

Reporting: Christian D. (GNT journalist specializing in mobility)