[GalenErso]

Unfortunately for Taiwan, it doesn't have the ability to prevent the U.S. from destroying TSMC's factories with: long range cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, PGMs, or special forces. But that wouldn't be necessary to deny China TSMC.

> Last year we reported on TSMC Chairman Mark Liu, who told interviewers that, “Nobody can control TSMC by force.” He reasoned(opens in new tab) that, “If you take a military force or invasion, you will render TSMC factories inoperable.” But, explosives wouldn’t be needed, according to Liu, as TSMC's fine-tuned operations would simply crumble as its real-time connections with the outside world evaporated. However, we should remember that China’s motives should not be measured against business rationality. Instead, its policies may be colored by a leader seeking glory, destiny, a legacy, and so on.

[dontlaugh]

Exactly. If the US could destroy Nord Stream, they can easily destroy some fragile factories.

[1letterunixname]

From a strategic asset perspective, the "gold" of fab and diffusion shops are in software and equipment configuration. It would be better to exfil and sabotage crucial equipment to retain the power to either return, exchange, or destroy it rather than irreversibly blow it up. It'd be a whole lot more geopolitically "acceptable" too than making bad press of one colonial power or another victimizing tiny Taiwan.