Donald Trump thinks Taiwan should pay for US defense, says it took America's chip business

[midian182]

A hot potato: The United States' relationship with Taiwan could come under strain should Donald Trump be elected president for a second time. The former POTUS believes the island should pay the US for defense, while also claiming that Taiwan took America's chip business and made itself rich in the process.

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek conducted before the weekend's assassination attempt, Trump was asked if he would defend Taiwan from an invasion by China, something that seems increasingly likely, especially as President Xi Jinping has said reunification is a "historical inevitability."

"Taiwan should pay us for defense," Trump said. "You know, we're no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn't give us anything," he added.

Trump also claimed that Taiwan took America's chip industry. "Taiwan took our chip business from us, I mean, how stupid are we? They took all of our chip business. They're immensely wealthy."

"Now we're giving them billions of dollars to build new chips in our country, and then they're going to take that too, in other words, they'll build it but then they'll bring it back to their country."

Taiwan is expected to produce around 66% of the world's most advanced chips this year, writes TrendForce, while the US is expected to account for just 6%. TSMC is the island's biggest player, having briefly seen its market cap hit $1 trillion earlier this month as it produces more chips for firms such as Apple, AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and others.

The $52 billion US CHIPS Act was introduced to try and improve the country's competitiveness in the chip manufacturing market while also lessening reliance on Asia. It's believed that the investment will see the US produce around 20% of the world's most advanced chips by 2030.

Most analysts believe that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be fairly disastrous for the electronics industry and, according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, could lead to a deep and immediate US recession.

There have been suggestions that the TSMC plants could be disabled remotely. There have also been questions over whether the US could bomb TSMC in the event of a Chinese takeover, but Taiwan wouldn't allow it, and the company says such action is unnecessary.

In 2022, TSMC chairman Mark Liu said that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would result in the company's factories becoming inoperable, underlining the point that "Nobody can control TSMC by force."

The Taiwan Relations Act requires the US to "provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character" and "to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan."

Responding to Trump's statement, Taiwanese Premier Cho Jun-tai said that Taiwan and the US maintain a good relationship, but the island is willing to take on more responsibility to defend itself and has strengthened its defense budget.

TSMC's shares closed 2.4% lower in Taiwan following the publication of Trump's statements.

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Donald Trump thinks Taiwan should pay for US defense, says it took America's chip business

 

[The Talking Tech]

Let's Make America Hostile Again.

This is the reason the rest of the world can't trust the United States....

 

[ScottSoapbox]

This is why we need a limited Federal government: politicians are both stupid and can’t be trusted.

State governments have to compete with each other, the feds have little to check their power or idiocy.

 

[Achaios]

Τhe era of Chinese Freeloaders and America committing suicide is coming to an end.

Your tears are already making me wet.

 

[Kashim]

Let's Make America Hostile Again.

This is the reason the rest of the world can't trust the United States....

This is what happens when you elect a brain dead degenerate who doesn't understand even the very basics of economics and governing.

 

[seeprime]

Normally, I try to avoid politics on tech sites. But, this will be fun. Trump being bombastic in his election rhetoric means little. Mexico didn't pay for a wall, at least the few miles that were built, either.

 

[Kashim]

Τhe era of Chinese Freeloaders and America committing suicide is coming to an end.

Your tears are already making me wet.

Any article about the orange cockroach and you can expect his supporters to crawl out from under their rocks and try to make a lot of noise with their nonsense.

 

[emmzo]

Well, he is right in this instance, you can't argue with that. He's also going to sell half of Ukraine to Putin and make "peace". But, you can't have it all, unless you're a republican, ofc. Just get yourselves comfortable, after the assassination attempt, he is now a martyr and the will of God, so, all Biden has to do now to beat him is to die and resurrect from the dead.

 

[NumberNine]

Corporations should be forced to declare which politicians they own on their taxes so the American people know which company they're voting for.

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

Let's Make America Hostile Again.

This is the reason the rest of the world can't trust the United States....

This is the reason the USA was once a feared superpower. Now we are a wasteland of spineless, brain dead leaders and a military focused more on DEI than how to put a gun back in its holster.
Thank God you weren’t around for WWII or the events leading up to it. We’d all be “duck-walking” right now.

 

[RudyBob]

We protect Taiwan and that should be reason enough for them to pay us. They could join NATO and pay "Their Fair Share" Oh, how I love writing that so the left can see it applied to them

 

[RudyBob]

Well, he is right in this instance, you can't argue with that. He's also going to sell half of Ukraine to Putin and make "peace". But, you can't have it all, unless you're a republican, ofc. Just get yourselves comfortable, after the assassination attempt, he is now a martyr and the will of God, so, all Biden has to do now to beat him is to die and resurrect from the dead.

Ukraine is not a good player but they don't deserve war anymore than the Russians do or anyone for that matter. If killing can be stopped I am all for that. It is not Republicans that want war it's people that invent, pay for and develop the weapon systems. This is on both parties. Since war is still inevitable it is necessary to have the best weapons and the best people running the show. With DEI this can't happen.

 

[axiomatic13]

No Donnie, in a race to make the cheapest (widget) American corporations chose to let other nations build these (widgets) for us at a cheaper cost. How do you guys follow this loon?

 

[drjekelmrhyde]

This is the reason the USA was once a feared superpower. Now we are a wasteland of spineless, brain dead leaders and a military focused more on DEI than how to put a gun back in its holster.
Thank God you weren’t around for WWII or the events leading up to it. We’d all be “duck-walking” right now.

How is it DEI when white people aren't signing up. Our Army recruiting for instance. 24% Black, 24% Hispanic, 44% White, and so on. The dittoheads are quick to point out the 13% crime thing, but will never mention that 24% Army recruit number.

 

[bviktor]

Τhe era of Chinese Freeloaders and America committing suicide is coming to an end.

Your tears are already making me wet.

What's so enjoyable about a brain dead person speaking things that are factually wrong?

 

[sreams]

This is why we need a limited Federal government: politicians are both stupid and can’t be trusted.

State governments have to compete with each other, the feds have little to check their power or idiocy.

Don't these statements directly oppose each other? Limit federal power... but the feds don't have enough power to check state idiocy?

 

[wiyosaya]

Fascinating. To sate US, and other countries', manufacturer's quest for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow called Profit, those manufacturers seek out a place which will give them the lowest possible cost to manufacture semiconductors. Taiwan steps in and accepts the business that US, and other countries, offer them. The really fascinating part, to me, is that this somehow has become Taiwan's fault, that manufacturers from the US and other countries offered them business and Taiwanese manufacturers accepted, excuse me, "Took" that business. And now, Taiwan can go **** itself because they did what any other business person would do, and accepted business?

It takes a stable genius to come to that kind of conclusion that everyone else is responsible for the short-sighted vision of the pot of gold seekers.

 

[wiyosaya]

This is the reason the USA was once a feared superpower. Now we are a wasteland of spineless, brain dead leaders and a military focused more on DEI than how to put a gun back in its holster.
Thank God you weren’t around for WWII or the events leading up to it. We’d all be “duck-walking” right now.

We protect Taiwan and that should be reason enough for them to pay us. They could join NATO and pay "Their Fair Share" Oh, how I love writing that so the left can see it applied to them

You can really tell the people who come from the land of Alternative Facts.

 

[wiyosaya]

Any article about the orange cockroach and you can expect his supporters to crawl out from under their rocks and try to make a lot of noise with their nonsense.

Guaranteed!

 

[wiyosaya]

I"m surprised he did not say that his first executive order would be to invalidate the chips act, too, since he has come to such a logical conclusion as to why the US lost its leadership in semiconductor manufacturing.

 

[wiyosaya]

 

[gamerk2]

We protect Taiwan and that should be reason enough for them to pay us. They could join NATO and pay "Their Fair Share" Oh, how I love writing that so the left can see it applied to them

Uh, no. The problem is people like you can't see beyond dollars spent, leading to *very* poor short-term decision making.

Case in point: Consider the longer-term costs of *not* aiding Taiwan in its defense: China immediately gains access to TSMC, jumping its technology ahead by a good two decades plus. Likewise, we lose TSMC leading to higher costs for all tech across the board [both because TSMC is the industry leader, and because their production is off the table]. So how do we deal with a suddenly stronger Chinese military? Simple: More defense spending.

Look at Ukraine: For 10% of one years worth of defense spending, Ukraine has basically destroyed the majority of Russia's T-72, T-80, and T-90 profile, to the point Russia is rolling its T-62s and T-55's (and even T-34s!) out of storage. Russia's tank forces have been absolutely devastated, Spending on Ukraine is by far the most efficient use of defense spending in American history. After all: Isn't it cheaper to spend tens of Billions for a few years to wreck Russia for the next few decades then it is to spend hundreds of Billions every single year to protect against them?

I never thought I would live to see the day where the Republican party became weak on defense, but here we are. The only thing the GOP stands for at this point is being on the opposite side of whatever the other side supports.

 

[gamerk2]

Thank God you weren’t around for WWII or the events leading up to it.

You mean when conservative isolationists wanted to stay out of world affairs, allowing dictators like Hitler and Stalin to come to power?

Europe learned its lesson: What you see in Ukraine now is what would have happened had France honored its defense treaty with Czechoslovakia in 1938. Unfortunately, many in the US think ignoring the rest of the world will make its problems magically go away.

 

[wiyosaya]

The GOP strategy on taking responsibility -

 

[Roach182]

This is what happens when you elect a brain dead degenerate who doesn't understand even the very basics of economics and governing.

Yes, but I don't think Biden will get a second term, so hopefully we will not have to go through four more years of it.