Somewhat related - look at the largest companies in Taiwan - a large number of them are in the advanced electronics manufacturing space (Pegatron and TSMC for instance).<p>TSMC - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is arguably one of the most important companies in the world, manufacturing chips for Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and many more. The barrier to entry for semiconductor fabrication is so ridiculously high, not even Apple owns its own foundries. Intel has been struggling with 7nm processes (now delayed), while TSMC is already churning out chips using the newer EUV 5nm process for Apple’s upcoming ARM devices (including some iMac and Macbook models). The US recently struck a deal with TSMC, pressuring it to drop one of its largest Chinese customers (Huawei) in return for opening an advanced foundry in the US (a $12B dollar project with enormous tax breaks for TSMC).<p>Due to its critical positioning in advanced electronics, I genuinely believe the US would get involved if China were to “mess with” Taiwan. A sobering realization is the increasing significance yet fragility of the global technology supply chain - something the pandemic recently exposed. There are geopolitical risks to the United States having a dependency on other nations for something as critical as semiconductors. It’s increasingly becoming a matter of national security.<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/business/economy/china-taiwan-huawei-tsmc.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/business/economy/china-ta...</a>
To some deleted comment --<p>I believe there are many Chinese people, visiting HN everyday to discover and share cool stuff, and look forward to conversations that are intellectually beneficial to the participants.
If anything, I hope I'm one of these good people, not a troll.<p>When the situation started to get tight, the meaning of word "we" here is shifting to "we Americans", but you see, unless HN put up a rule to block Chinese users, they will be here. Still looking for fun stuff, but end up seeing the theme turning to "tension", "conflict".<p>They think differently. Some views may seem unfair, or don't make sense to them.
They usually just keep quiet, hide the entries and move on. But sometimes it gets too annoying, so they'll also raise a few points.<p>It is you who thinks defending China is not ok.
So in converse, there will be people who think it is.<p>It doesn't make one troll because she's not speaking in your favor.
I thought this was all fine?
Can we just, sit down and compute?
Decoupling our economies, if successful (a big if), is a recipe for war.<p>Unfortunately, the last few remaining adults interested in and capable of doing the hard work of political and economic diplomacy, and domestic industrial policy left in 2016. Most had retired already as they were old enough to have lived through either WWII or the Korean War and thus knew what the stakes were. Taking their ball and going home was never an option for them no matter how much the opponent cheated--the task at hand was constant engagement, which however difficult and seemingly pointless was preferable to the alternative.
Don’t buy things from China. Vote with your wallet. I’ve personally done this for the past year or two. At least to the extent that it is possible. Would love to see a USA made mobile phone though.
I don't see how Taiwan and the US are like-minded at all. Taiwan is a democratic country with a decently levelheaded approach and fantastic manufacturing that led to a good coronavirus approach.<p>And the US is run by a wannabe dictator, authoritarian loving, narcissist that was obviously elected by a significant portion of the US population and that has a pretty reasonable chance on getting reelected. And yes, while the mail-in voting mess might have an impact on it, it is by far not the only reason.<p>Like-minded democracies might be the European states, but while they actually still have a lot of american products banned for food safety reasons, similar to Taiwan, Taiwan has actually caved to White House pressure on something I would hardly call a trade deal but more a bully forcing its way on country such as Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.<p>It's funny how the US talks about moving manufacturing out of China, when their approach to Taiwan seems to be to bully them to build manufacturing plants in the US.
Anything connected to the Trump administration is going look pretty dumb by default to most, and the politics of the U.S.-China spat are certainly a mess. However, there are compelling economic reasons for manufacturers to move operations to new places (Note: Likely not the U.S.).<p>Just for one example, compare the population age pyramid of China[1] to that of India[2]. The way in which China's long standing (but now retired) one-child policy has shaped their population pyramid into a top-heavy column is truly unreal. They have a huge cohort entering retirement age and another big cohort entering their late 30's where they're experienced rather than <i>cheap</i> workers. If you want young, cheap labour in China, the supply is about to start contracting<p>Meanwhile India's age pyramid really is a pyramid. As China's cheap labour pool shrinks, India's is set to grow <i>massively</i>. Factory wages in India are currently about one fifth of China's too. If you're building a shiny new iPhone factory that will need a multitude of the cheapest human hands money can hire, they're not in China anymore. The gap is going to widen substantially over the next decade or so too.<p>It will take a lot to break up existing supply chains and pry them out of China, but the economic incentives exist today and will become more irresistible each passing year.<p>Automation is, of course, a wild-card, but what might work to keep factories in China will work to bring them back to places like the U.S.. Automation works in any country, but demographics no longer favour China when it comes to the one thing that has attracted manufacturers looking to make things as cheaply as possible: cheap labour.<p>This may be why we've seen China becoming increasingly aggressive over the last few years. Their economic base is peaking and decline is in sight. Now is the time to grab as much power, territory, and influence as possible and try to solidify it before that economic base melts away.<p>[1]<a href="https://www.populationpyramid.net/china/2019/" rel="nofollow">https://www.populationpyramid.net/china/2019/</a><p>[2]<a href="https://www.populationpyramid.net/india/2019/" rel="nofollow">https://www.populationpyramid.net/india/2019/</a>
But it is clearly not happening - is it?<p>China is the only major economy that is projected to grow this year. And Corona-virus crisis is under control there whereas in eg. India it is still escalating.
Remember when the US government successfully formed a partenrship agreement with 13 countries called the TPP that would have been a strong counter to China's growing influence but Trump threw it in the trash as soon as he got into office. Making us weaker just for political purposes.
The United States‘ grip on the world is starting to get much looser. A strong China is seen as the reason, but there are many more.<p>The US is trying to build up an alliance against China, but I guess a lot of countries will want to stay neutral in that conflict. The Chinese government is doing horrible atrocities, but the US also isn’t the paragon it portrays itself to be.
It's possible that we may have been able to find some in Central and South America, if they weren't squeezed by the war on drugs on one end, and state-actor-sponsored regime changes on the other.<p>But one does reap what one sows.
"Like minded" probably means either "white" or "vassal" states of USA. USA had a great opportunity to play a constructive role in Latin American and use their vast manpower for its benefit while benefiting those countries as well. Mexico, Brazil could have done what China did. However USA constantly tried to destabilize its neighbors and focused on playing petty games instead of constructive allies.