SHANGHAI, November 17. /TASS/. Taiwan may lose its value to American authorities once TSMC chip manufacturing capacity is transferred to the US, vice dean of the School of International Relations of the Renmin University of China Jin Canrong said.
"The US will most likely give up Taiwan, they are reluctant to part with TSMC because chips are too important for them," the American studies professor said on the program "Roundtable on Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait", broadcast on Chinese streaming platforms. "If the US manages to poach TSMC, they might consider Taiwan no longer valuable, <...> I think it is very likely," Jin Canrong added.
According to him, the US, lacking means of producing advanced chips on its own, "resorted to stealing and effectively turned TSMC into an American company." The professor urged the people of Taiwan to understand that "the US cannot be trusted." "Washington can abandon Taiwan at any given moment, while the power of mainland China is immense," the expert noted.
Jin Canrong considers the US the primary external force shaping Taiwan’s current situation. "Other countries are essentially a joke, a support group with no real power, including Japan, whose role is also limited," he said. He emphasized that Japan lacks an independent military and is "merely an extension of the United States." "Without US involvement, any unilateral Japanese action is practically meaningless. As for India and the Philippines, they merely add fuel to the fire and provoke tensions without significantly affecting the situation," the professor added.
The world's largest semiconductor manufacturer TSMC previously said it would invest an additional $100 billion over the next four years to expand its US semiconductor manufacturing capacity. The plan is to build three new chip factories, two advanced chip packaging facilities, and an R&D center in the US.
Taiwan has been administered independently since 1949, when the remnants of the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled there following their defeat in the Chinese Civil War. Since then, the island has maintained the flag and several other symbols of the former Republic of China, which existed on the mainland before the Communists came to power. Beijing considers Taiwan a province of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a stance supported by the majority of countries, including Russia. While acknowledging the One China policy, the US continues to interact with the Taipei administration and supply arms to the island.