Voters spurned Beijing’s repeated calls not to vote for Lai, delivering a comfortable victory for a man China’s ruling Communist Party sees as a dangerous separatist.
Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vowed to defend the island from China’s “intimidation” and on Sunday the island’s foreign ministry told Beijing to accept the result.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the Beijing authorities to respect the election results, face reality and give up suppressing Taiwan in order for positive cross-strait interactions to return to the right track,” it said in a statement.
Kind of. It’s basically an unfinished civil war. At this point for most Taiwanese, status quo simply means we have the freedom to do what we want and we can get advantages from China and the US for standing in the middle. Taiwanese people also know that China blusters and constantly give meaningless final warnings. No Taiwanese person believes China will ever attack.
My problem is, everytime we get into the news, there are economic consequences. Like TSMC losing business due to American sanctions. So my goal here is to try to get everyone to just leave us alone so we can live in the peace and prosperity of not being in the news.
An unfinished civil war in which the Republic of China lives on in a tiny island? Damn, must have been a real stalemate for the KMT and Communist Party.
For the record, I absolutely believe China would attack Taiwan, when they think they are ready. And you don’t have to take my word for it: what of all those missiles Taiwan posseses? Are they pointed towards or away from the strait?
As for being left alone, the only reason Taiwan can live in peace and prosperity is because of its strategic semiconductor fabs and the publicity it generates. Yes, the publicity it generates puts us the forefront of global conversations and keeps Taiwan safe.
China doesn’t care about TSMC, it never did, that’s a US thing. China was always planning to out compete TSMC, that’s what made in China 2025 was about. It’s the US that panicked and tried to stop China from doing just that.
You could argue USA is trying to start a war by making China want TSMC, but recent events show China is intent on surpassing then still, regardless of what USA wants.
Unfinished civil war is an interesting take. Still, in every matter there is someone making the decisions, are there matters where the decisions are shared? Or some areas where they get made by Taiwan, while others where they get made by China?
TSMC has been a really smart move on the part of Taiwan; by out-competing everyone at a time when everyone was happy to outsource as much as possible, it’s made Taiwan a critical asset to most of the world.
Still, that isn’t likely to last for too long. Mainland China is already manufacturing semiconductors with older node technologies, and both the US and EU have been ramping up local foundries, so the protection TSMC brings Taiwan is likey to disappear rather sooner than later.
What your getting at is in my opinion, the core of the matter. It’s really an issue of shared decisions. Each side is trying to position themselves to get the lion’s share of them. The truth is, regardless of Taiwan and China call themselves one or separate, ultimately it will always be an issue of what decision each side gets to make. In many ways we see that playing out in the US/China relationship as well.
TSMC isn’t really that important. Without TSMC and US interference, China would have just chugged along anyway. And we are seeing even with US interference, China’s plan is to just chug along. It’s the US that keeps bringing up TSMC because as you mentioned, it’s a decision that’s getting more and more out of US’s ability to make decisions on.