Spooked by the threat that China might invade Taiwan, the U.S. wants to cut its dependence on the island’s world-beating microchips. Officials in Taipei believe the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is going too far.
In quiet conversations and back-channel warnings, Taiwanese officials have urged their American counterparts to tone down their rhetoric about the dangers of relying on chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
The officials are particularly unhappy with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who has called U.S. dependence on Taiwanese chips "untenable” and "unsafe.” They were also uneasy with remarks by a top Republican lawmaker, Michael McCaul, during a recent trip to Taipei. He said Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is a strategic asset that’s "very vulnerable to invasion.”