Driving Taiwan in Chinese embrace?
If Mr. Trump's prices were to enter into force, they could drive Taiwan in a tighter embrace with China.
Taiwan cannot afford a rate of 32%, and China knows it. Chinese leaders could offer more access to the Chinese market in exchange for key concessions, which may have stopped building TSMC in Arizona or agree to transfer key technologies that cannot be obtained directly in the United States or Europe.
Most likely, prices on Taiwanese products, or at least on TSMC, will not be implemented, and Trump will find a way to declare victory.
As threatened, Trump prices are a losing-perd-perrd proposal for China, Taiwan and the United States. If, as expected, the prices are reconfigured, the American economy will still suffer, but Taiwan could become safer.
Anne Stevenson-Yang is co-founder of J Capital Research USA LLC, A research company in actions and author of Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Close of the Chinese Economy, published in 2024.
