[smoldesu]

Perhaps. I agree that scuttling the factory wouldn't entirely deter China from attacking Taiwan, but it would definitely dent the value prospect of doing so. TSMC under Chinese ownership would be a remarkably powerful bartering chip (companies spend billions just getting their foot in the door around there), so I could really see it going either way. I know people from Taiwan, their general consensus is that under Chinese rule there would be no "ordinary life", and their goal is to make China respect their independence to the bitter end. There's definitely insufficient economic motive here, but the politics of the matter run much deeper than that.