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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   28734 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 28, 2023

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Its value is not limited to semiconductors.

It is to Vivek. He literally said "I will only defend Taiwan until we get semiconductor independence", with a nice timetable for when he'll make that happen"

"So, one of my objectives is by the end of my first term, I believe I will lead us towards semiconductor independence. During that time, I'm going to be very clear, move from strategic ambiguity in Taiwan to strategic clarity, where I am crystal clear with China that you do not make a move on that island because I refuse to put China in a position to hold an economic gun to our head," Ramaswamy said. "We'll take destroyers from the group we have in Japan, take one per month, move it through that Taiwan Strait. ... This is something that actually will send a strong signal to China they will not take the risk of making that move, especially if they know that the U.S. is only biding our time until we have semiconductor independence. That's where strategic clarity actually helps us."

....

"That's what I'm going to do, Hugh, to make sure that we don't put ourselves in that position," Ramaswamy told the host. "China will have no reason to aggress towards Taiwan between now and the end of my first term in 2028 if we show we're serious about it, but by being strategically clear that that commitment changes after we've achieved semiconductor independence. Now put yourself in [Chinese President] Xi Jinping's shoes. He has no interest in taking that risk."

He continued, "And the truth of the matter is, there are two reasons why China wants to annex Taiwan. One is to squat on the semiconductor supply chain, so they can exert leverage over the United States of America. That's not happening on my watch. I take a firm position on that. But the second reason why is that they have unfinished nationalistic business dating back to their civil war in 1949. And if that's the sole basis for Xi Jinping going after Taiwan, after we have semiconductor independence, then you know what, I am not going to send our sons and daughters to die over that conflict. And that's consistent with my position on Ukraine as well."

In fact, he's basically telling China: "don't bother, you can get them for cheap when I'm done with the semiconductor issue"

Interesting, didn't hear that part.

Wonder if the US can actually achieve strategic independence from Taiwan on semiconductors, especially if he's in charge. You'd think Taiwan would start slow-walking TSMC in America if that's the case. Just five years is a short time to move an entire industry, especially when Taiwan is much better at it than disorganized countries like America:

https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20230313PD200/arizona-ic-manufacturing-morris-chang-tsmc-wafer-fab.html

https://www.anandtech.com/show/18966/tsmc-delays-arizona-fab-deployment-to-2025

I'm confident that the US needs way more chips than just from the Arizona plant, which shows little signs of profitability, should it open without more delays. Then again, it might be better losing Taiwan without a fight than getting the US military wrecked in China's home waters and losing Taiwan with a fight.

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