I would be cautious. With a top notch chip factory there is no need to defend Taiwan against China.
Exactly. Its the only card Taiwan holds once its gone America will never care about them
TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
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Re: TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
#22I would be cautious. With a top notch chip factory there is no need to defend Taiwan against China.
Does anyone think the US would defend Taiwan at this point? I think that ship has sailed under the current administration.
Unfortunately I have to agreed. Protection rackets seem to be pretty much the defining activity when Trump is allowed to run the show, but I doubt appeasement in itself is really going to buy Taiwan anything.
What's to stop him from taking the bribes and then just fabricating some of his trademark bullshit about how the Taiwanese "have been very unfair" and Xi's people were actually totally in the right all along.
Re: TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
#23Re: TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
#24Re: TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
#25I would be cautious. With a top notch chip factory there is no need to defend Taiwan against China.
Chips are but a tiny reason the US wants to maintain the independence and integrity of Taiwan. (The same can likely sadly be said of their democracy, given the US stance on Ukraine.) Taiwanese independence is primarily about containing China's naval power projection and their ability to keep unimpeded shipping lanes open during times of war. China can currently be easily blockaded, and within a few weeks of such bloc…
Why couldn't that massive blockade just go around Taiwan is well?
Re: TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
#26I would be cautious. With a top notch chip factory there is no need to defend Taiwan against China.
Does anyone think the US would defend Taiwan at this point? I think that ship has sailed under the current administration.
Are you willing to get drafted and fight to defend Taiwan and whatever comes as a result of that? Are you willing to die for Taiwan, or have your kids die for Taiwan? Honest question.
Re: TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I second this Didn't Trump terminate the Chips act?
The president can’t just unilaterally cancel a piece of legislation already signed into law. But maybe he gets the new congress to repeal it.
That's the old way of thinking -- they're trying to do just that across the government and without some enforcement mechanism to make them send the checks, the practical result is that the President can indeed cancel pieces of legislation via impoundment.
Example 1 - Trying to take $20 billion from Citi: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5161849-inflat...
Example 2 - The pause preempting the defunding of USAID: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reev...
Example 3 - CHIPS act would have had funding withheld if a Federal Court hadn't stepped in, but it's unclear what enforcement mechanism can force the funding to resume: https://archive.is/BxjHw
Re: TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
#28I would be cautious. With a top notch chip factory there is no need to defend Taiwan against China.
Does anyone think the US would defend Taiwan at this point? I think that ship has sailed under the current administration.
Nope. The US is doing all it can to become irrelevant geopolitically in Europe, that's not to start a war with China with a very uncertain outcome. Economic ties is (was) the really last bastion that would have motivated the US to intervene.
Re: TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I second this Didn't Trump terminate the Chips act?
The president can’t just unilaterally cancel a piece of legislation already signed into law. But maybe he gets the new congress to repeal it.
He's not constitutionally able to do so.
But DOGE has been trying to do effectively that for the past month, and has been distressingly successful at it. (For all that conservatives whined about the existence of an unaccountable deep state override elected officials making laws, that's basically an accurate description of DOGE.)
Re: TSMC expected to announce $100B investment in U.S.
#30I would be cautious. With a top notch chip factory there is no need to defend Taiwan against China.
Chips are but a tiny reason the US wants to maintain the independence and integrity of Taiwan. (The same can likely sadly be said of their democracy, given the US stance on Ukraine.) Taiwanese independence is primarily about containing China's naval power projection and their ability to keep unimpeded shipping lanes open during times of war. China can currently be easily blockaded, and within a few weeks of such bloc…
What do you think it can be blockaded with? Submarines... barely. Carriers are sitting ducks these days, especially since China already has an equivalent of Russian Onix missiles and launch platforms. Subs won't cover the land corridor, and they will get all they need across the Russian border if it comes to that.
China will eventually get Taiwan without firing a shot. Pretending that the US can defend an island next to a Chinese border is a pipe dream.