DRIVING TAIWAN INTO CHINA’S EMBRACE?
If Mr Trump’s tariffs have been to enter impact, they may drive Taiwan right into a tighter embrace with China.
Taiwan can little afford a 32 per cent tariff, and China is aware of that. Chinese language leaders might provide extra entry to the China market in return for key concessions, maybe stopping TSMC’s building in Arizona or agreeing to switch key applied sciences that can’t be obtained instantly from the US or Europe.
More than likely, the tariffs on Taiwanese merchandise, or at the very least on TSMC, won’t be applied, and Mr Trump will discover some option to declare victory.
As threatened, the Trump tariffs are a lose-lose-lose proposition for China, Taiwan and the US. If, as anticipated, the tariffs are reconfigured, the American economic system will nonetheless undergo, however Taiwan might develop into that rather more safe.
Anne Stevenson-Yang is co-founder of J Capital Analysis USA LLC, a stock-research firm, and writer of Wild Journey: A Quick Historical past of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese language Economic system, revealed in 2024.
