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Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

arstechnica.com

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Re: Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

#11

Post by general1465 »

theothertimcook wrote: post #10

Reminds me of Ukraine and the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances from the 90s, where they gave up their nukes for assurances of protection… Has the US government has gotten more trustworthy in the last 3 decades?

Whole Budapest Memorandum and subsequent unwillingness to act as signed sealed the deal to never give up nuclear weapons for nations which got them and also opened other nations to finding a way how to make or get control over their own nuclear weapons - like Poland, Japan or Germany.

Only the threat of glassing a capital city of an aggressor will keep an aggressor at bay.

Re: Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

#12

Post by SpicyUme »

general1465 wrote: post #11
theothertimcook wrote: post #10

Reminds me of Ukraine and the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances from the 90s, where they gave up their nukes for assurances of protection… Has the US government has gotten more trustworthy in the last 3 decades?

Whole Budapest Memorandum and subsequent unwillingness to act as signed sealed the deal to never give up nuclear weapons for nations which got them and also opened other nations to finding a way how to make or get control over their own nuclear weapons - like Poland, Japan or Germany. Only the threat of glassing a capital city of an aggressor will keep an aggressor at bay.

It is a shame, that thought started in my mind with the invasion of Crimea. France came out looking pretty smart for their policy of entirely homegrown nuclear programs.

Re: Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

#13

Post by keernan »

>>if it wants ensured protection against a threatened Chinese invasion

If the promised 'ensured protection' of Taiwan was worth anything then why is the security of the United States dependent upon 50% of chip production being moved out of Taiwan?

Sounds more likely Taiwan's 'ensured protection' will only last as long as 90% of chip production remains in Taiwan.

Re: Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

#14

Post by jauntywundrkind »

It's ridiculous to have to put up with this childish nonsense. This would take a decade, if both countries were pouring money and effort into the project. There's no incentives (other than the perceived existential one, where-in the US also loses all access) and the economics don't work. But we are subject constantly to the barrage of fantasy being put on by the nowadays US Government.

This feels only slightly more probable than Trump getting the EU to tariff China at our level (https://www.axios.com/2025/09/13/trump-sanctions-russia-nato...), join the US in economic suicide (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/business/trump-tariffs-sm...).

The commitment to not doing the right-thing unless you can coopt other people into doing incredibly harmful to themselves things feels like it's giving enormous quarter to the enemy, to the authoritarians of the world. Having an excuse for not doing the right thing, for cry-bullying your way through your inaction, is such a Demon-Haunting move. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45404373

Re: Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

#16

Post by jltsiren »

SilverElfin wrote: post #15

The only just move is for the US and European countries to recognize Taiwan and add them to NATO - or invite them to be a US state.

NATO membership would not matter much, because the geographic scope of NATO is limited. For example, if someone invaded Hawaii or French Guiana, or if Morocco tried to annex Ceuta, it would not be an attack against NATO.

The limitation was intentional. Many of the founding members were failing colonial empires, and nobody wanted to be drawn into someone else's colonial wars.

Re: Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

#17

Post by autumnstwilight »

theothertimcook wrote: post #10

Reminds me of Ukraine and the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances from the 90s, where they gave up their nukes for assurances of protection… Has the US government has gotten more trustworthy in the last 3 decades?

Well, look at what happened when Hyundai sent their staff over to get a factory that the US wanted built. (My understanding is that they were bending the rules of short term visas because the correct visas were simply not allocated to South Korea in the number required and there was somewhat of a blind eye turned in the past in the interest of getting anything done ever.)

If I were at TSMC, I would not trust that the correct visas would be available in a timely manner to complete the project and also that any staff sent over there might get scooped up by ICE and sorted out later.

Re: Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

#18

Post by theothertimcook »

autumnstwilight wrote: post #17
theothertimcook wrote: post #10

Reminds me of Ukraine and the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances from the 90s, where they gave up their nukes for assurances of protection… Has the US government has gotten more trustworthy in the last 3 decades?

Well, look at what happened when Hyundai sent their staff over to get a factory that the US wanted built. (My understanding is that they were bending the rules of short term visas because the correct visas were simply not allocated to South Korea in the number required and there was somewhat of a blind eye turned in the past in the interest of getting anything done ever.) If I were at TSMC, I would not trust that the…

That blows my mind, all the while, not surprising me at all.

Ending up in a elsalvadoran processing centre because of red tape and political drama

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