China must seize TSMC if the US tightens sanctions, says economist
China should take control of Taiwan and leading chip foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) if the US tightens sanctions, according to a senior Chinese economist.
The course of action was laid out by Chen Wenling, chief economist and deputy director of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), in an article titled ‘We can’t let TSMC move to the US.’ This was published in the news website Guancha.
The article could be interpreted as a diplomatic warning to the US and a response to a paper published by a US military think-tank. That paper, reported in January, argued that making the destruction of TSMC’s wafer fabs in Taiwan an immediate and automatic consequence of any invasion of the island by China would be an effective deterrent against such an invasion (see Destroy TSMC if China invades, to make Taiwan ‘unwantable’, says US military paper).
Chen was equally belligerent calling on China to largely ignore US words and seek to support Russia and increase cooperation with Europe as a way to isolate the US.
As one element of a multipart strategy Chen said that when the US and the West imposes destructive sanctions on China, like those being imposed on Russia, “we must recover Taiwan, especially in the reconstruction of the industrial chain and supply chain, we must seize TSMC, a company that originally belonged to China.”
Chen noted that TSMC has plans to build a leading-edge campus of six wafer fabs in the US (see TSMC planning for six wafer fabs in Arizona). “They are speeding up the transfer to the United States, and to build six factories in the United States. We must not let all the goals of the transfer be achieved,” she said.
Though funded by both government and private sources, the CCIEE has been noted for its tight connections to the government of the People’s Republic of China.
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