Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. is putting $12 billion into Arizona, and on Thursday the state’s governor flew to Taipei to talk about it. Doug Ducey met President Tsai Ing-wen and praised the growing economic and educational ties between the two places.
The TSMC project is expected to create 2,000 jobs in Arizona. The company plans to bring many of its future workers to Taiwan for training.
“Arizona and Taiwan have many shared economic strengths specifically in technology and advanced manufacturing industries,” Ducey said. He added that semiconductors are where the partnership runs deepest. “(The investment) has elevated the potential of what’s possible between Arizona and Taiwan,” the governor said.
Other links are in the works. Arizona intends to open a state representative office in Taipei, and the two sides have signed a higher education cooperation agreement. The state also hosts a base that trains Taiwan’s F-16 pilots, who figure heavily in the island’s defense against a threatened Chinese blockade or invasion.
Neither leader named China. Tsai came close, though, saying current events were pushing the two sides together. “In the face of authoritarian expansionism and the economic challenges of the post-pandemic era, Taiwan seeks to bolster cooperation with the United States in the semiconductor and other high-tech industries,” she said.
She said the cooperation would make supply chains safer and more resilient. “We look forward to jointly producing democracy chips to safeguard the interests of our democratic partners and create greater prosperity,” Tsai said.
Chips and China
Taiwan leads the world in making semiconductors, the chips inside everyday electronics. They have turned into a battleground in the technology contest between Washington and Beijing.
Ducey’s trip is the latest in a string of visits by American political figures that have angered China. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and condemns official contacts between Taipei and any government that recognizes Beijing.
Arizona’s ties to Taiwan go back to former senators Barry Goldwater and John McCain, both conservatives and both sharp critics of Beijing.
The visit follows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip early last month, the first by an American official of her rank in 25 years. China responded by firing missiles over the island and sending ships and planes across the midline of the Taiwan Strait. More recently, the U.S. sent two missile cruisers through the strait, which is 180 kilometers (110 miles) wide, rejecting Chinese protests. The U.S. has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but it remains the island’s main source of political and military support, and federal law requires it to help ensure Taiwan can defend itself.
