Taiwan's Scorched earth plan to Cina invasion

 

Washington cannot "be complacent about the notion of China taking control of Taiwan's powerful chipmaking capabilities,"

 

Washington cannot "be complacent about the notion of China taking control of [Taiwan's] powerful chipmaking capabilities," argues Jared M. McKinney.
 
But the assistant professor of international security at the U.S. Air Force's Air War College writes that this does not mean the U.S. should be seen as threatening to destroy key nodes of Taiwan's semiconductor industry -- particularly the factories of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. -- in case of a Chinese attack.
 
Rather, Taiwan itself should make clear to China that an invasion would activate a self-destruction mechanism. "Threatening to scorch the island's technological crown jewels is just one way of increasing the costs of a potential invasion and reducing the prospective benefits therefrom," McKinney writes. Washington can support this "by laying plans to quickly evacuate key Taiwanese technicians."
 
The notion is to make Beijing realize that if Taiwan were conquered but TSMC destroyed, China would be unable to mass-produce leading-edge semiconductors while facing economic sanctions that cut it off from much of the global economy.
 
"China's strategy to beat the middle-income trap -- 'innovation-driven development' -- would fail and its economy and Beijing's ability to improve the lives of its people would be thwarted," McKinney argues.