What is the narrative in East Asia geopolitically?

What is the narrative in East Asia geopolitically?

10/22/23

China is not commenting on the timing of its investigating Foxconn in a tax audit and land use probe as its founder Terry Gou is running for president in Taiwan.  Despite everything else, this is the clearest path for the Chinese gov’t to overtly interfere with the Taiwanese elections in the midst of the “chip war”.

There is a Tang Dynasty story about a man who was fired by his general and fell asleep under an ash tree.  While he slept he dreamed he married the daughter of a great king and became governor of Nanke.  When he woke up he was disappointed to find it was only a dream.  This has led to the Chinese idiom “Dreaming of Nanke”.  

In one manner of speaking or another, any or all of the candidates could find in a little while that they have been asleep and Dreaming of Nanke…

10/28/23

The pan-Blue coalition of opposition parties are trying to forge some cooperation pact before January’s elections.  Ko Wen-je, former mayor of Taipei, now wants to include Terry Gou in the prospective cooperation agreement, despite him currently being under investigation by both China and Taiwan at the same time.  

What is the narrative in East Asia geopolitically?  The AIT director says the U.S. and Taiwan are on the front lines of an “information war” while President Biden restricts sales of NVIDIA AI chips to China, and a Taiwanese lab produces a workable quantum computer. 

The central place of TSMC in all of this continues to inspire awe. 

TSMC is a “jewel of the nation” of Taiwan.  It represents the power of Taiwan in international relations, as well as the aspirations of millions of Asians who would like to see careers as impactful as those offered by TSMC.  But it also represents creative trans-Pacific economic cooperation and development.  And it needs to continue to be that beacon of promise in the technological age. 

There’s a place for Taiwan in the world economic order, that is not limited to TSMC.   There’s a place for it as a democratic nation and not just an economic powerhouse.  We have to find that space where Taiwan can participate in global institutions without fear of reprisal from China.  The project of doing this will likely take many decades.  But in the meantime, we can take measures worldwide to keep Taiwan safe. 

Taiwan is a democracy, an open society with freedom of speech, press, and assembly; a place where labor unions can thrive.  This is all very different from China, from which Taiwan faces its biggest threat. 

One of the main ways the world community could move to include Taiwan in the world order would be to reconsider U.N. Resolution 2758.  The text of that resolution only expelled “representatives of Chiang Kai-shek” from occupying the place of China at the U.N.  It said nothing about Taiwan or its representatives.  Power has long since been democratically devolved to the people in Taiwan, and it is no longer ruled as a private fiefdom by Chiang and his allies.  Taiwan could take a lawful place at the U.N. in the foreseeable future.  

11/4/23

Taiwan to spend NT$300bn on chips, AI - Taipei Times

This article, published November 3, states three major policies of the Taiwanese government in advance of the election early next year.  The first is the investment of roughly 10 million US dollars in the semiconductor chip industry.  The second, the Ministries of Justice and Interior have “stepped up their intelligence gathering efforts” in relation to potential election interference - this after a raid in Changhua County on two brothers who solicited funds to bet on the election.  The third, further news about the investigation of Terry Gou’s campaign for purchasing personal information to use in the presidential hopeful’s signature drive to get on the ballot.