Pelosi top priority in Taiwan is not the one night stand with English Tsai but to meet with TSMC executives to blackmail them into submission 佩洛西在台灣的首要任務不是與蔡英文一夜情，而是會見台積電高管勒索他們屈服

My media friend from Taiwan said that the most important meeting in Pelosi’s schedule was not with the DPP authorities or President Tsai, but a meeting she specifically demanded with the CEO of TSMC, the leading manufacturer of the world’s most advanced semiconductors set up by Chiang Ching-Kuo and his technocrats, Sun Yun-Suan and Morris Chang, during the pinnacle of Taiwan’s economic miracle in the 1980s. TSMC is the designer and manufacturer of the super awesome M2 chips powering our iPhones and Macbooks.

US Congress has passed bills forcing TSMC to set up chip fabs in Arizona and transfer their technology to the US, even though this is very much against the wishes of TSMC management. TSMC has repeatedly said that costs in the US are too high, and there are not enough quality engineers with the skills needed in the US. But the US Commerce Department and US Congress don’t care because they are run by lawyers who are only good at issuing sanctions and threatening other countries through legislation and the power of the US military.

In short, Pelosi and the US Congress do not give a damn about Taiwan’s “democracy”. They only care that TSMC’s fabs and engineering know-how are wholesale transferred to the US and don’t ever fall in China’s hands. This was the reason behind her demand to meet TSMC’s management while she was in Taiwan.

Poor Taiwan. It is getting stripped of its TSMC crown jewel and assets by the US even before it has died.

Pelosi’s Taiwan visit* George Yeo – Singapore’s former foreign affairs minister

Extracts:

It is not in China’s interest to start a war. But ‘For the US, it is better to fight now. If you fight a year from now, China will be stronger. If you fight 10 years from now, China will be even stronger.’

When Pelosi flew into Taiwan, the US Indo-Pacific Command was all prepared for war. China was also prepared for war. The US played it very carefully. It was a provocation but it was very carefully done, so the US cannot be accused of being ‘offside!” “Biden said he doesn’t think the visit is a good idea; the Pentagon said it was a bad idea, but Nancy Pelosi is a power in her own right. As Speaker of the House, the US has to support her when she goes overseas.”

At the end, neither side wanted a war, so they contained it.

In retaliation, China announced live-fire military drills around Taiwan starting Aug 7, well after Pelosi is set to leave the region. China also halted fish and fruit imports from Taiwan, while suspending the export of natural sand to Taiwan.

Information had it what Pelosi spoke to Mark Liu, Chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. TSMC, accounts for a fifth of the world’s production of latest generation chips. A US$52 billion American Chips and Science Act passed a day prior to Pelosi’s visit is designed to boost US semiconductor manufacturing for direct financial assistance to companies building chip-manufacturing plants in the US, and for advance chip-manufacturing research and workforce training.

China has to manage a new reality and exercise a degree of leadership without seeking to displace the US, which is feeling insecure.”

China will become the number one economy, the biggest market in the world and the biggest importer in the world. For many multinationals, including those in the US, China will be a more important market than their own countries.

Asean nations will increasingly look to China to drive domestic growth. Since 2009, mainland China has overtaken the US and Europe to become Asean’s largest trading partner.

Globalisation has reached its peak and the pendulum is swinging back to increasing localisation, Covid-19 has accentuated that trend.

Pelosi’s visit is not just an example of toothless brinkmanship, rather, both sides are studying their opponent’s plans and processes. China knows that if there is a war, it must face a similar menu or even a bigger menu of sanctions and actions compared to Russia.

The guess is both sides are gathering intelligence and thinking how to counter each move “the next time round”