The West relaunches relations with the high-tech island, a "rebel province" according to Beijing

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08 September 2021 “Don't expect an easy life and be ready for battle”. These are the words of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, pronounced in the Central School of the Communist Party in a lesson addressed to the CCP cadres to outline the lines of his thought regarding developments in domestic and international politics, paying attention above all to the continuing tensions between USA and China which are gradually assuming different configurations based on the changes in world geopolitics. "It is necessary to protect our national security" reiterated Xi, aware that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan opens up new and more complex scenarios and that now the field of confrontation between Beijing and Washington is widening: for China to maintain peace and stability becomes more urgent in Afghanistan,a country abandoned to itself and back in the hands of the Taliban, to be kept under control especially in the territories close to the border between Xinjiang (the Chinese region with special status inhabited by the Muslim minority of Uighur Turks) and Afghanistan, 76 kilometers of mountainous frontier from which jihadists could transit.  

But the American withdrawal from the "tomb of empires" was probably "accelerated" by the need for the Biden administration to look towards the Pacific, towards that area where the influence of People's Republic of China is rapidly growing, a strategic area in which it is positioned. Taiwan, the island that the Chinese government considers a rebellious province and that it wants to reunify with the motherland. Tension in the area rises: on August 30, 2021, the Chinese Ministry of Defense once again protested against the passage of other US naval warships, whose military presence increases in the waters between China and Taiwan. "The US is the greatest threat to peace and stability and creates security risks in the 160-kilometer-wide Taiwan Strait."The statement by the Beijing Ministry of Defense further specified for the umpteenth time that: "Taiwan is an inalienable part of China", and Beijing will not tolerate any interference in what it has called its internal affairs.

The interests of China and the US in those seas are huge and multiple, waters rich in hydrocarbon deposits in the seabed of inestimable value, renowned for the world fishing industry, one of the main maritime outlets to Northeast Asia.

It is in this context that a new element is taking shape and adding, the role of Taiwan, not only as an island that Beijing wants to bring back to itself, and at the center of strategic seas, but also because in recent years and recently also due to the pandemic, Taiwan has become the world leader in the production of semiconductors, the tiny basic electronic devices for smathphones, computers, cars. The West (USA but also the EU) is increasingly looking to the island as a source of supply for these components, which are essential for winning the global technological competition. 

A report from the European Parliament has recently been urged on the EU to relaunch relations with Taiwan, the small great rival of Beijing, an increasingly advanced country in the hi-tech industry, an increasingly indispensable partner for the great powers. that the Made in China 2025 plan (according to which Beijing aims to achieve technological self-sufficiency from the rest of the world by that date) does not seem to suffer major setbacks. 

Taiwan produces about 60% of the world's microchips and a single company on the island (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufactoring) produces 92% of the most sophisticated ones in the world, with transistors measuring less than a thousandth of the width of a human hair, says the company. TSMC. In the second quarter of 2021, hiring in the Taiwanese semiconductor industry increased more than 40% compared to 2020. This is the highest figure since the end of 2014.   

Even before the pandemic, Taiwan was a crucial link in the global semiconductor manufacturing chain. But the demand for microchips has increased very quickly as the health emergency has forced almost the entire world population to spend more time at home with the consequent increase in sales of consumer electronics. The island's largest tech companies have all reported record revenues in 2020.

Now it remains to be seen what role Taipei's dominance will play in global semiconductor exports and how the major powers will compete to forge privileged business relationships with the island in a historical moment in which technology seems to be the only needle in the balance capable of influencing the fate of the world.