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Comment by psychphysic | Hacker News Reader

Taiwan has invested in it like it was it's military.

And it worked, they got to the point that the US would defend them from a Chinese invention.

The US has been an ally of Taiwan since before the CCP existed.

Before the CCP existed, Taiwan was part of China, and was occupied for many years by Japan. After the Chinese civil war and the rise of the CCP, the defeated nationalist government moved to Taiwan. It is only then that any US alliance with Taiwan began.

China had never ruled over the island. It called it a province for ~ 7 years before Japan took Taiwan and actually ruled over it. The US was allied with KMT after they took over from the Qing dynasty. And continued to be allies after CCP pushed KMT out. When China attacked Taiwan the U.S. stepped in.

> Before the CCP existed, Taiwan was part of China

This is simply not true.

"Being an ally" and "Ready to defend against China" are very different qualities.

The main reason Taiwan is still independent is that US was willing to defend it for all those years.

The US had a strategically ambiguous alliance with Taiwan a long time before TSMC. Take a look at a map of the Pacific. Color China red, color Taiwan blue. That really bottles up China's navy. Change Taiwan to red: now China has easy access to the Pacific.

Are you saying that once the US has moved TSMC over to the US then the US will stop caring about Taiwan?

It was never about the chips. The technology is strategic but can possibly be replicated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_island_chain

China is surprisingly confined in its waters. Strange as it seems with all that coast line, China (and thus a huge chunk of world trade) has to transit confined sea pathways before it can reach oceans.

Conversely, should China ever gain control over Taiwan, that fact and the implied retreat of Western navies (US primarily) from those waters would make China's Navy the guarantor of the global (trade) order in its most important economic region. Today, it is the US Navy that fills that role.

Geography remains hugely important in shaping history. Per some views, the very rise of Europe was primarily due to navigational advances. Technologies that allowed circumventing strategic geographical realities that had stood for thousands of years: the land corridors of Asia and the Mediterranian sea & ports.

“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests” ― Henry Kissinger

That's not something that Kissinger has ever gotten to decide and he has historically been frequently wrong. Kissinger is about as meaningless of a reference point as you could use in that sphere.

He hasn't had potent influence over US foreign policy in over four decades. They barely pay attention to anything he has said in the last several decades, and the left certainly ignores him.

Might as well quote Robert E Lee on US policy.

I interpreted that quote as more of an observation by Kissinger, as opposed to statement of official US foreign policy.

Is that not obvious? The US State department is pretty clear about their self-serving intentions.

I think there's a good chance of markedly decreased interest, yes.

Their fabs would be instantly destroyed in the invasion. If China’s attacks don’t destroy them, the US will to avoid the tech entering China’s hands.

Frankly, the whole idea that the US is only defending Taiwan because of TSMC is ridiculous.

Losing access to cutting edge nodes will screw some businesses over but it hardly the end of the world.

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