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A hundred miles of typhoon-swept sea from China’s southeastern coast, a string of colossal factories in Taiwan churns out the most important electronic devices on Earth.
The tiny, intricate chips that give life to phones, computers, cars, satellites and almost everything else with a power source are at the center of the economic contest between the United States and China, a rivalry that is shaping the future of technology worldwide.
The issue loomed in the backdrop of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island democracy on Wednesday, as she spoke with the head of one of the biggest power players in chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Today’s cutting-edge chips are mostly made in Taiwan, where the two powers are entangled in a geopolitical tug of war over the island’s future. In Washington, Beijing and Taipei, diplomatic and military calculations are interlinked with concerns about the supply chains without which the modern world might come to a halt.
