Taiwan’s strategic imperatives in safeguarding national security through semiconductor significance amid Sino-US rivalry

Chu, Ming-Chin Monique (2025) Taiwan’s strategic imperatives in safeguarding national security through semiconductor significance amid Sino-US rivalry. In, Chow, C.Y. Peter (ed.) Technology Rivalry Between the USA and China. (Palgrave Studies in Global Security) Cham. Palgrave Macmillan Cham, pp. 309-338. (doi:10.1007/978-3-031-76169-0_10).

Abstract

Existing literature has insufficiently examined the crucial role Taiwan has played in contributing to the commercial and defense semiconductor sub-sectors of both the American and Chinese economies, as well as its implications for Taiwan’s national security. This paper addresses this gap by first delineating Taiwan’s role in the global semiconductor supply chain and subsequently highlighting the under-studied importance of Taiwan to the commercial and defense chip industrial base of both the US and China. The paper then critically explores Taiwan’s strategic options in safeguarding its national security, leveraging its significance in the semiconductor domain. It is contended that Taipei should embrace two major strategies to maximize its national security on account of its semiconductor capability: to utilize different formulations of the ‘Silicon Shield’ arguments to its advantage despite the nuanced and partial functions of such a shield; to conduct unconventional diplomacy through the help from semiconductor non-state actors to mitigate Taiwan’s international isolation, and to highlight why other countries should care about a Chinese attack against Taiwan despite its contested statehood. It concludes by arguing that even though the ‘Silicon Shield’ argument in its various formulations is partly persuasive in dissuading a Chinese attack against the island and in enticing third-party intervention in the event of a Chinese military operation to take over Taiwan, counterfactual analysis suggests that Taiwan still needs to sustain and retain its significance in the global semiconductor chain in order to maximize its national security.

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Contributors

Author: Ming-Chin Monique Chu

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