No to the US: Taiwan rules out relocating half of its chip production to America

[Alfonso Maruccia]

The takeaway: The tariff-focused foreign policy of the US administration is keeping governments and industries on edge. President Trump is now turning his attention to semiconductor manufacturing, with a particular focus on Taiwan-based production – though any major shifts in that sector remain unlikely for the time being.

Washington authorities reportedly asked Taiwan to relocate 50 percent of the country's chip production to the US, but Taipei rejected the proposal. According to Bloomberg, Taiwan's Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun confirmed that the relocation idea originated in the US. The country never agreed to it and has no intention of discussing it further.

"This issue was not discussed in this round of negotiation, and we will not agree to such a condition," Li-chiun stated.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stated that the proposal was indeed raised during recent meetings with Taiwanese officials. The US is actively seeking to reduce its reliance on foreign semiconductor production. The conflicting statements suggest a significant disagreement between the two sides.

For years, US policymakers have debated reducing dependence on overseas chip manufacturing. Recent tariffs and policy pressure under the Trump administration are accelerating these efforts, though the final outcome could carry unintended consequences.

According to Taiwan's government, discussions with the US regarding the Section 232 investigation are ongoing, and "certain progress" has been made. The Trade Expansion Act remains the primary tool behind President Trump's tariffs, which treat alleged export imbalances with other countries as a matter of national security.

Lutnick's team working on the Taiwan dossier noted that more than 70 percent of the country's exports to the US are semiconductor-based products. Negotiators are expected to reach a common understanding on Trump's reciprocal tariffs, including issues related to supply chain cooperation.

TSMC is a key player in the global semiconductor supply chain and Taiwan's primary leverage in geopolitical tensions with China. Taipei is unlikely to relinquish any portion of its chip production, even as the Hsinchu-based foundry becomes entangled in the US-initiated trade disputes.

The company has already agreed to significantly expand its manufacturing presence in the US, but progress in Arizona has faced challenges. Recent rumors suggested a potential joint venture with Intel, though TSMC ultimately dismissed these speculations.

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No to the US: Taiwan rules out relocating half of its chip production to America

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Moving too much chip production out of Taiwan significantly reduces their power in keeping the US military close at hand to deter Chinese attempts at occupation.

It's also the backbone of their entire country. Without chips Taiwan doesnt have much of an economy.

Problem is they ARE still within striking distance and keeping the worlds high performance chip manufacturing on one singular island mere hours away from a hostile superpower that is also vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis is an issue all its own.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Problem is they ARE still within striking distance and keeping the worlds high performance chip manufacturing on one singular island mere hours away from a hostile superpower that is also vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis is an issue all its own.

Please define what "hostile superpower" means for you. Living in the EU, right now I'm having a lot of doubts about that.

 

[James321]

Good more countries need to stand up against US bullying everyone into submission.

US need to learn to play nice with others. It's give and take not only take and take.

Would we nice if everyone could just work together for the sake of humanity.

 

[dualkelly]

Moving too much chip production out of Taiwan significantly reduces their power in keeping the US military close at hand to deter Chinese attempts at occupation.

It's also the backbone of their entire country. Without chips Taiwan doesnt have much of an economy.

Problem is they ARE still within striking distance and keeping the worlds high performance chip manufacturing on one singular island mere hours away from a hostile superpower that is also vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis is an issue all its own.

More like they don't want their workforce who comes to set up the factory to be arrested by the orange gestapo force like they did in Georgia. Several companies are pulling up and wanting to leave after that.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Please define what "hostile superpower" means for you. Living in the EU, right now I'm having a lot of doubts about that.

A "hostile superpower" is a superpower that is hostile to your existence as an independent country.

Now, I ask you to engage your brain for a minute. Taiwan and China have been long engaged in a cold war over Taiwan's independence. China has made numerous hostile gestures at Taiwan and keeps navel vessels nearby at all times, as well as publicly proclaimed that Taiwan belongs to them. Ask Tibet how well that tends to work out.

The US has maintained a carrier battlegroup in the waters near Taiwan for decades to dissuade Chinese aggression. That doesn't come cheap. You should be aware of this, as a resident of the EU, your entire life your country has been protected by the US military via NATO (which derives much of its funding from the US budget). A hostile power doesnt protect you with their military for 70+ years.

More like they don't want their workforce who comes to set up the factory to be arrested by the orange gestapo force like they did in Georgia. Several companies are pulling up and wanting to leave after that.

Oh, you mean those UNDOCUMENTED workers that were here illegally? Gee wonder if Hyundai could have done something about that....
Enforcing immigration law does not make you the Gestapo. Please cool it with the antisemitic remarks.

 

[dirtyferret]

Please define what "hostile superpower" means for you. Living in the EU, right now I'm having a lot of doubts about that.

Living in the USA, I'm having a lot of confirmation our current executive branch is making us one. That said, you can not deny China's stance on Taiwan as even two days ago they called on the nation to firmly oppose "Taiwan independence separatist activities" and have a history on making statements about annexing Taiwan, not recognizing them as a sovereign nation, and other tactics to intimidate and isolate Taiwan.

 

[dirtyferret]

A "hostile superpower" is a superpower that is hostile to your existence as an independent country.

trump has renewed his threat of using military force to annex Greenland, saying in an NBC News interview he wouldn’t rule it out to make the self-governing Danish territory a part of the United States.

“I don’t rule it out,”
“I don’t say I’m going to do it, but I don’t rule out anything.”
“We need Greenland very badly,” Trump said. “

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

You should be aware of this, as a resident of the EU, your entire life your country has been protected by the US military via NATO (which derives much of its funding from the US budget). A hostile power doesnt protect you with their military for 70+ years.

Ah, so you have no doubts. Good for you, I guess.

Just a final note before I stop right here: I don't feel "protected" at all, in anything. Just angry at everything.

 

[dirtyferret]

You should be aware of this, as a resident of the EU, your entire life your country has been protected by the US military via NATO (which derives much of its funding from the US budget). A hostile power doesnt protect you with their military for 70+ years.

yeah @Alfonso Maruccia , you should be more grateful to us when we protected your country in WW III from the East German Women's Gymnastic team, in WW IV from Ivan Drago, and WW V from Margaret Thatcher.

I mean it's not as if the EU is a 1.5 trillion dollar trade partner with the USA and if destabilized through war the economic impact on the USA would be horrific. Plus European NATO countries only purchase 64% of all arms from the USA with France coming in second at 6% so clearly the American "military-industrial complex" has no benefit from NATO either.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Ah, so you have no doubts. Good for you, I guess.

Just a final note before I stop right here: I don't feel "protected" at all, in anything. Just angry at everything.

Life is far too short to be angry at everything. People have become completely disconnected from reality immersing themselves in politics and internet drama. When Biden got elected, did I like it? Oh Hell No. Was I snarky, Absolutely.

But I also continued to live life. I continued to go to work, I made a new friend group, went to many weddings over the last 4 years, helped guide one friend out of debt, and made great progress in my hobbies, all despite having a political leader whose party is hostile to my existence and believes me to be the second coming of Funny Moustache Man.

If the EU really, TRULY feels we are a hostile power then......tell us to leave. Let us pull out of NATO. We'll happily take that $2 trillion+ a year and use it for other things. That can build a lot of roads, replace a lot of sewer lines, ece. The fact is, the last time we said we'd reduce out contributions to match the lowest percentage contribution of a NATO member, the EU's leaders went into a blind panic, falling to their knees in self flagellation apologizing for their comments calling the US a state of barbaric tyrants. So the complaining from EU citizens calling us a hostile power rings awfully hollow.

And let me clarify: I am totally in support of that! I would love to see us pull out of NATO and let the EU deal with the EU's problems. We shouldnt be funding wars in the Middle East or Ukraine either. We also shouldn't be the guardians of the world's shipping lanes, let the rest of the globe fund that too! Since the world thinks we're evil warmongers, we shouldnt be providing any of these services, and let everyone else realize just how much global stability relies on US power.

Somehow I feel a lot of the people that hate the US would be very against this arrangement after just a few weeks.

 

[NumberNine]

More games involving small men sitting in big chairs.

 

[dualkelly]

A "hostile superpower" is a superpower that is hostile to your existence as an independent country.

Now, I ask you to engage your brain for a minute. Taiwan and China have been long engaged in a cold war over Taiwan's independence. China has made numerous hostile gestures at Taiwan and keeps navel vessels nearby at all times, as well as publicly proclaimed that Taiwan belongs to them. Ask Tibet how well that tends to work out.

The US has maintained a carrier battlegroup in the waters near Taiwan for decades to dissuade Chinese aggression. That doesn't come cheap. You should be aware of this, as a resident of the EU, your entire life your country has been protected by the US military via NATO (which derives much of its funding from the US budget). A hostile power doesnt protect you with their military for 70+ years.


Oh, you mean those UNDOCUMENTED workers that were here illegally? Gee wonder if Hyundai could have done something about that....
Enforcing immigration law does not make you the Gestapo. Please cool it with the antisemitic remarks.

not undocumented. they were there to train American workers over 5000 of them on how to use the Korean machines and to set up those machines properly they were some documentation errors that could have been cleaned up with a phone call.. now guess what the entire state of Georgia is out over 10 billion dollar investment lol red states for the win. They are absolutely the Gestapo. they have been arresting people including American citizens without a warrant in masks and have been deporting people illegality against judges orders and without due process and no matter how much you whine due process is for every single human in America citizen or not. All of that is exactly what the gestapo was its not my fault you lack the education on the matter.

 

[Burty117]

If the EU really, TRULY feels we are a hostile power then......tell us to leave.

You know, I think I can kinda explain why generally people get annoyed with the US.

It's because the US tells everyone what they can, and cannot do, with stuff they bought from the US, and the US has a very short memory.

I find it incredibly strange when American's defend Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta etc... against other governments when they want to fine them for breaking whatever law. People in all parts of the world, paid for their iPhone, their Office license, they became the product to get free email and social media, a price has been paid, but we get the American government shouting how it's not fair to attack American companies.

On top of that, as a comment above stated, the EU buys a lot of American arms, for some reason, America seems to think it's a one way street and the EU only takes, that's just not true. I will admit, UK, France, Germany, Spain MASSIVLEY dropped the ball when it comes to local protection, tiny little army's and laws that can't even stop a rubber dingy from crossing a river. Countries that have taken protecting themselves seriously though, like Poland or Finland, rarely get a mention.

And when it comes to short memories, Article 5 of the NATO agreement has only been invoked once, by the USA, which everyone else came to help, now America threatens to not come to anyone elses aid.

Let us pull out of NATO. We'll happily take that $2 trillion+ a year and use it for other things. That can build a lot of roads, replace a lot of sewer lines, ece. The fact is, the last time we said we'd reduce out contributions to match the lowest percentage contribution of a NATO member, the EU's leaders went into a blind panic, falling to their knees in self flagellation apologizing for their comments calling the US a state of barbaric tyrants. So the complaining from EU citizens calling us a hostile power rings awfully hollow.

And let me clarify: I am totally in support of that! I would love to see us pull out of NATO and let the EU deal with the EU's problems. We shouldnt be funding wars in the Middle East or Ukraine either. We also shouldn't be the guardians of the world's shipping lanes, let the rest of the globe fund that too! Since the world thinks we're evil warmongers, we shouldnt be providing any of these services, and let everyone else realize just how much global stability relies on US power.

Somehow I feel a lot of the people that hate the US would be very against this arrangement after just a few weeks.

No No, I kinda agree with you on all of that, honestly, the leaders over this side of the pond have become incredibly weak, insanely so. Imagine showing Winston Churchill today what the UK defense forces have become, how it can't stop rubber dingy's full of people coming for a free life.

There's a couple of things to note though, the USA had the last 70 years to stop funding, stop patrolling, yet it hasn't, why? 2 trillion saved would be big.

The reason people would be get annoyed with that arrangement is because the governments on this side of the pond has gotten VERY good at blaming almost anything else, on anything that goes wrong, the issue in the UK at least, is chronic corruption and rapidly increasing inequality, but that would actually require doing some work to sort out, so better to blame it on the American's, or the french, they've been annoying for hundreds of years, but actually, all these pesky immigrants is the real issue, nothing to see here...

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

not undocumented. they were there to train American workers over 5000 of them on how to use the Korean machines and to set up those machines properly they were some documentation errors that could have been cleaned up with a phone call.. now guess what the entire state of Georgia is out over 10 billion dollar investment lol red states for the win. They are absolutely the Gestapo. they have been arresting people including American citizens without a warrant in masks and have been deporting people illegality against judges orders and without due process and no matter how much you whine due process is for every single human in America citizen or not. All of that is exactly what the gestapo was its not my fault you lack the education on the matter.

That's one way to misrepresent it. Here's the actuality of it: https://apnews.com/article/us-south-korea-ice-raid-georgia-hyundai-9394482c195664d7cc3db67ae998ac05

“This was not an immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks, and put them on buses,” [Steven] Schrank said. “This has been a multimonth criminal investigation where we have developed evidence and conducted interviews, gathered documents and presented that evidence to the court in order to obtain a judicial search warrant.”

In reality, none of the people arrested even worked for Hyundai. Contractors were taking advantage of unauthorized, transient workers to make more money without benefiting local construction workers:

Ellabell resident Tanya Cox, who lives less than a mile from the Hyundai site, said she had no ill feelings toward Korean nationals or other immigrant workers at the site. But few neighbors were employed there, and she felt like more construction jobs at the battery plant should have gone to local residents.

“I don’t see how it’s brought a lot of jobs to our community or nearby communities,” Cox said. “Where we used to hear birds chirping and animal life around here, now we hear the plant when it’s fully going at night.”

As a matter of fact, there are dozens of new job postings for the battery plant that ICE arrested the 475 workers from: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/searc...:d_flagship3_company;EgeCK+25QUGYTc7+YQO7uQ==

It looks like instead you either lack education or you're trying to deceive others.

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

I can see one contributing factor, two different work cultures. TSMC already having conflicts in their Arizona plant. Best that Chip manufacturing remains in Taiwan/Asia as profits will be higher there.

 

[scoffer]

I see it as a case of 'damned if you do' and 'damned if you don't'..............a tough call for Taiwan. But it's for sure that Trump can't be expected to honour any promises made.

 

[Axeia]

Disadvantages for Taiwan:
* US (and others) will be less inclined to come to their aid when China comes knocking on their door
* They shrink their economy
* They dilute their knowledge base (factories are going to need expertise from Taiwan at the very least the first couple of years)

Advantages:
?

Yeah, I can see why they said no. I'm sure security guarantees were promised in exchange but they hold absolutely no value imo. Ukraine showed us that the US doesn't care too much about having signed the Budapest Memorandum as it's been Ukraines least reliable ally with aid being held up in congress. And the current administration wanting to be paid for the aid provided by previous one (Hello mineral deal).
The only way to make it look like the US has Taiwans back is by keeping things as they are and hoping that's enough of a deterrent to keep China at bay.

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

I would love to see us pull out of NATO and let the EU deal with the EU's problems.

SEATO and ANZUS too?

I would love to see us pull out of NATO and let the EU deal with the EU's problems.

If Uncle SAm decides to stop sticking his nose onto things around the world it would save a lot of $$$.
But a lot of people will lose their jobs.
Ask whitch US companies are profiting from this Status Quo.

 

[netman]

"Washington authorities reportedly asked Taiwan to relocate 50 percent of the country's chip production to the US, but Taipei rejected the proposal."

Lol...! Trying to con the conman...!

 

[havok585]

Moving too much chip production out of Taiwan significantly reduces their power in keeping the US military close at hand to deter Chinese attempts at occupation.

It's also the backbone of their entire country. Without chips Taiwan doesnt have much of an economy.

Problem is they ARE still within striking distance and keeping the worlds high performance chip manufacturing on one singular island mere hours away from a hostile superpower that is also vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis is an issue all its own.

Hostile superpower ? It's their own PEOPLE, brother if you dont study history just keep your mouth shut.
Taiwan will get back under China, in the future, there's no doubt about that, with a model of autonomy like Hong Kong.

 

[dangh]

If I were to make this decision as Taiwan I would say yes, if US acknowledge Taiwan as an independent country. A for now US wants to get Taiwanese forges, but don't want to acknowledge them as a country, kinda pushing into China.

If Taiwan had moved to US their production, US momentarily would hug Winnie the Pooh and forgot about that island.

 

[Burty117]

Hostile superpower ? It's their own PEOPLE, brother if you dont study history just keep your mouth shut.
Taiwan will get back under China, in the future, there's no doubt about that, with a model of autonomy like Hong Kong.

Uummm… I’m not sure if you’ve seen what’s been going on in Hong Kong over the last 10 years but, that model is eroding at an alarming rate, I don’t think Taiwan wants the same model somehow.

The British gave Hong Kong back to China in what, 1997? It took less than 30 years for China to start removing and eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy.

 

[captaincranky]

Uummm… I’m not sure if you’ve seen what’s been going on in Hong Kong over the last 10 years but, that model is eroding at an alarming rate, I don’t think Taiwan wants the same model somehow.

The British gave Hong Kong back to China in what, 1997? It took less than 30 years for China to start removing and eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy.

Outside of the number of FPS their rigs get, many in this crew have absolutely no f**king idea what the hell is going on here in the US, or around the world. It's why we have the current, bumbling demented, psychotic, "a**hole in chief", pretending he's a king, and not somebody actually capable of doing the job. (BTW, he's also a pathological liar).

And if memory serves, (I admit, sometimes it doesn't), Chinese troops marched into Hong Kong years ago. I think people were protesting their "independence being taken away". Of course the troops were really only there to, "restore order".

 

[captaincranky]

If I were to make this decision as Taiwan I would say yes, if US acknowledge Taiwan as an independent country. A for now US wants to get Taiwanese forges, but don't want to acknowledge them as a country, kinda pushing into China.

If Taiwan had moved to US their production, US momentarily would hug Winnie the Pooh and forgot about that island.

No, all of what you're saying is predicated on which party is in power, ATM. Ukraine was getting everything, including musk's kitchen sink given to them while Biden was in power. Our current "ponce-I-dent", shut his flabby, varicosed, swollen legs, on their supply, preferring instead to embarrass and attack Zelenskyy at the White House.

As for whether or not we'd "forget about Tawain", that again is a matter of who's president. Under Biden or Harris, TSMC forges in he US would more likely act as a "mutual defense pact", what with TSMC now being a (partly) US company.