'Silicon shield' protects Taiwan against China

If not for the tiny island nation's prowess in making semiconductors, which the whole world needs, China might have attacked it already. By Peter Fabricius

- By Peter Fabricius

Taiwan's superiority in advanced electronics — particularly semiconductors, in which it is a world leader helps its defence in several ways.

These ways include helping the tiny country to make smarter weapons, build stronger alliances with its allies and make itself increasingly indispensable to the world economy. It also greatly boosts Taiwan's wider economy, providing the revenue to buy better weapons and generally strengthen its resilience.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), based in Hsinchu, about 50km southwest of the capital Taipei, is perhaps the country's greatest strategic asset. It is the world's largest semiconductor foundry, manufacturing chips on behalf of many customers. It is also one of the top three global companies in any aspect of producing semiconductors.

The modern global economy is largely powered by semiconductors in the form of microprocessors, memory chips, commodity integrated circuits and complex systems on a chip (SoCs). The tiny electronic circuits are the brains for millions of devices ranging from coffee machines and smartphones to cars, space vehicles and missile guidance systems.

Last year, TSMC contributed 7.3% of Taiwan's GDP of $814.44-billion, 13.4% of exports and 12.3% of national income tax.

'Silicon shield'

In different ways, Taiwan's semiconductor prowess serves to provide a "silicon shield", protecting the country from the threat of China, says Scott Huang, associate researcher of Hsinchu Science Park, where TSMC was founded in 1987 and is still headquartered.