Plans to survey chipmakers and keep tabs on the supply chain to head off further disruption highlight just how disconnected the U.S. government is from the realities of a $500 billion industry that spans the globe.
Instead, American diplomats would do well to work with allies to build an integrated real-time database that will last well beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
A request last month by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo for semiconductor companies to detail their sales, products, technology and inventory was coupled with a threat that the White House might invoke a Cold War-era law to force them into submission. Such intimidation is counter-productive, and ruffled feathers in Taipei, Seoul and Beijing at a time when Washington needs to open lines of communication with other nations.