Voters spurned Beijing’s repeated calls not to vote for Lai, delivering a comfortable victory for a man China’s ruling Communist Party sees as a dangerous separatist.
Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vowed to defend the island from China’s “intimidation” and on Sunday the island’s foreign ministry told Beijing to accept the result.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the Beijing authorities to respect the election results, face reality and give up suppressing Taiwan in order for positive cross-strait interactions to return to the right track,” it said in a statement.
Unfinished civil war is an interesting take. Still, in every matter there is someone making the decisions, are there matters where the decisions are shared? Or some areas where they get made by Taiwan, while others where they get made by China?
TSMC has been a really smart move on the part of Taiwan; by out-competing everyone at a time when everyone was happy to outsource as much as possible, it’s made Taiwan a critical asset to most of the world.
Still, that isn’t likely to last for too long. Mainland China is already manufacturing semiconductors with older node technologies, and both the US and EU have been ramping up local foundries, so the protection TSMC brings Taiwan is likey to disappear rather sooner than later.