It would be “impossible” to move 40% of Taiwan’s semiconductor capacity to the U.S., the island’s top tariff negotiator said, pushing back against recent comments by American officials who called for a major production shift.
In an interview with Taiwanese television channel CTS that was broadcast late on Sunday, Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said she had made it clear to Washington that Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem, built up over decades, could not be relocated.
“I have made it very clear to the United States that this is impossible,” she said, referring to the 40% goal the U.S. has floated.
That ecosystem will continue to grow in Taiwan, Cheng said, adding that the semiconductor industry would keep investing at home.
The plants are rigged to blow in an invasion? That is smart. Iraq did that in the first persian gulf war, he blew the oil fields the Americans were seizing. We all expected him to do that in the Iraq war, but for whatever reasons they never did. He might as well have.
But that would be such a massive loss of investment, and probably a real disincentive to invasion, those factories are not something that can be replaced in one year. Especially with all the specialized machines, where there are only one manufacturer of.
I clearly don’t know it for a fact that TSMC has done that, but the idea is a widely talked about strategy for protection. U.S. politicians even talk openly to the press about us blowing up the fabs if Taiwan doesn’t.