Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. has put $12 billion into Arizona, and on Thursday the state’s governor flew to Taipei to say thank you in person. Doug Ducey sat down with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and praised the growing economic and educational ties between the two places.
The TSMC investment is expected to create 2,000 jobs in Arizona. The company plans to take many of its future workers to Taiwan for training. Arizona also intends to open a state representative office in Taipei, and the two sides have signed an agreement on cooperation in higher education.
“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 is strongest: “Both Arizona and Taiwan are global semiconductor leaders and it is in this industry where our partnership is the greatest.”
Tsai’s framing
Neither leader mentioned China by name. Tsai, though, made plain what was 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 that would make supply chains “more secure and more resilient,” and she spoke of jointly producing “democracy chips.”
Taiwan is a leader in making semiconductors, the chips inside everyday electronics, and they have become a battleground in the technology rivalry between the United States and China.
China’s reaction and the wider backdrop
Ducey’s trip is one in a series of visits by U.S. political leaders that have angered Beijing. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and condemns official contacts between Taipei and any government that recognizes Beijing.
Arizona has its own link to the island’s defense: the state hosts a base that trains Taiwan’s F-16 pilots, who would be central to any response to a Chinese blockade or invasion. The relationship goes back to former senators Barry Goldwater and John McCain, both conservatives and both sharp critics of Beijing.
The visit came a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan, the highest-ranking American official to do so in 25 years. China answered 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, in a rejection of Chinese protests.
Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with Taipei, yet it remains the island’s main source of political and military support. Federal law requires it to make sure Taiwan can defend itself against Chinese threats.
