[tachyonbeam]

I was thinking about that recently. China can't realistically invade (or intimidate/sanction) Taiwan as long as they are dependent on TSMC, because of those semiconductor manufacturing plants went down, it could be a global economic disaster, and China would be one of the most heavily impacted, given the proportion of everyone's electronics they manufacture.

[dirtyid]

China can't realistically invade TW until it can take on USN 10-15 years from now after more build up / military modernization anyway. Happenstance of TSMC dominance is IMO blessing in this regard, buys PRC 10+ years of military and semi catchup time. There's going to be theatrics and political posturing in the interim by US/CN/TW, but ultimately TSMC buying TW time is buying CN time to close gap with US.