Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/09/taiwan-pressured-to-move-50-of-chip-production-to-us-or-lose-protection/

45 comments

  3. “If you don’t do this thing to make me stronger, then I will let Phil over there destroy both of us, and trust me, we don’t want that.”

  4. “move your chip production so we wont even need to protect you”

  6. LOL, give up the only card you have to get some protection from America for an empty promise from a President that is known to back out of any deal they make if they perceive their interests better served else where.

  7. Sigh… They think it’s so easy like moving a car from one parking spot to the next?

  8. Right, I’m sure it’s a winning strategy for them to export the strategic industry that incentivizes basically all nations to prevent China from taking them over. “We’re working really hard to align with this goal,” I’m sure.

  9. The good news is, extortion is always trustworthy and never keeps happening

  11. The thing is, if we don’t protect them and China moves in, they can tell the US to go fuck themselves and the cost for the same chips could skyrocket……. tRump and his threats are just stupid. Blackmail is not the way…………..

  12. So we have Bessent’s texts w someone, worried about having overplayed our hand w china and losing the soybean sales and now this

  13. 44% of US logic chips come from Taiwan. And 24% of memory chips.

    I highly doubt the US wants to become dependent on buying chips from China.

  14. They’re already hiring Taiwanese workers to build sites in US

  15. Extortion. Purely transactional. I bet the Taiwanese have a pretty good idea how the Ukranians feel now. Disposable “allies.”

  16. Uhh, so he says that 50% of the chip production should be moved to the US because it would be bad if China took Taiwan and the US lost access. But then apparently he’s trying to argue that Taiwan should totally move to make that happen so that the US will somehow be MORE inclined to defend Taiwan if the US is insulated from the damage of failing to do so? Did I get that right?

    Master negotiator right here.

  18. It would take a decade to build the facilities and either buy new equipment or transfer equipment from Taiwan and reinstall it to support 50% of their capacity. This is just Trump acting like he knows what he’s talking about.

  20. America does NOT have the upper hand here. The United States isn’t going to leave Taiwan undefended. That would be a global economic catastrophe. The US economy and military depend on Taiwan’s chips, as does every other major country in the world. Not only that, but moving 50% of Taiwan’s chip manufacturing halfway around the world is a near impossibility. This administration is either grossly incompetent, certifiably insane, or both.

  21. Nice island ya has here. Be a shame if sumptin happened to it.

  23. the capacity of the Arizona plants is less than 1/200th of TSMC Taiwan’s total capacity. and Arizona plant requires thousands of Taiwanese to operate and supply chains are from Taiwan. If TSMC​ were to move total capacity over, it would require a few million Taiwanese and a hundred corporations. They would take over Phoenix, is Lutnick ready for that kind of demographics change?

  24. there he goes, wrecking ALL our alliances. i hate this man so much.

  25. Right, remove the only reason that the US will protect Taiwan for.

  26. Temu Vader be like “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it further”

  27. Russia: Ukraine doesn’t need nuclear weapons. We promise to never harm them.

  28. Plot twist Taiwan voluntarily sides with China to spite Trump

  29. That’s a wild headline. That would have been a national scandal 20-30 years ago.

  30. Wasn’t the CHIP act supposed to bring production to the US?

  31. Another gangster type action by the Trump government. And so if Taiwan were to do that then what would be the reason for America to provide assistance? It certainly would not be due to feeling any ethical responsibility as the Trump government has none of that quality.

    No. Taiwan’s smart move is to move no chip production whatsoever. Trump only understands leverage.

  32. I can see it now, Taiwanese people go to America to setup new factory. All get arrested by ICE.

  33. Jesus. He is selling every bit of soft power, hard power, civic infrastructure, every system of self-government we have built over the last hundred years, selling it all off for firewood. It’s like watching a kid borrow the family car and use it to make money by letting people hit it with a sledgehammer for five dollars a swing. I have said “Jesus” more in the last nine months than in the previous nine years. Jesus.

  34. That sounds like a bad deal for Taiwan. Taiwan needs to realize nobody is coming to save them, especially if they have nothing to offer.

  36. Yes come to the US and set up a factory. Then have all the Taiwanese people get arrested and deported halfway through the project. /s

  37. Literally cannot trust the us wont just seize the plants

  38. Trump has already sent India running to China. Will Taiwan be next?

  41. Gives big “Ukraine surrenders their nukes” vibes. If TACO has the chip production, why the hell would he protect Taiwan. He makes and breaks deals as fast as his dementia ridden brain can come up with them. 

  42. I saw some Taiwanese netizens express their opinion that if they were to hand over their chip technology and infrastructure to America only to be abandoned, they would rather use it as a leverage tool to negotiate with China, make peace, and side with them.

  43. Lol I already see big news title in next 6 months “Taiwan and China agree for peacefull reunification!”.

  44. This is it. This is how China will take Taiwan without consequences.

  45. US foreign policy is looking more and more like a hostile protection racket than bilateral beneficial agreements by the day.

    This is not a viable long term strategy, because unlike the mob you rely on third parties for threats and enforcement unless you want to end up like Russia.

    So if the US continue down this path they will end up being a gas station with an oversized military that other countries only deal with if there are no other option.

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