Taiwan does far more than just TSMC. That is just one single company, albeit a very essential one. For instance, I don't like to buy hand tools (impact sockets, torque wrenches, etc) made in China, but Taiwanese tools are a higher quality and I have no hesitation purchasing them.

I suspect that the hand tools made in China aren't low quality because China doesn't have the tech to make them better, but instead because making cheap low quality tools is more profitable.

In fact, when taking apart China-made, China-designed products, I am frequently very impressed at cost-cutting measures that are taken with minimal impact on the functionality of the product.

Essential for you. But overall tsmc eclipses everything else Taiwan makes.

If Taiwan stopped making those tools you would be impacted. The world overall... not so much.

> Essential for you. But overall tsmc eclipses everything else Taiwan makes.

TSMC’s revenue is less than a tenth of Taiwan’s total export revenue. They might be the most profitable of Taiwan’s companies, but Taiwan has a huge economy.

And it terms of impact on the world economy, Hon Hai precision, better known in the west as Foxconn, would like to say hi.

Many computer/electrics manufacturers and OEMs, like ASUS, Acer, Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron, MediaTek, Synology, etc are HQ'd in Taiwan. Though PRC company may be able to supersede them, unlike TSMC.

Taiwan also serves the role as an unsinkable battleship right next door to Chinas mainland. Its military value extends far beyond its chip production capabilities in order for the US to check Chinas influence in SEA region.

The U.S. military doesn't stage any assets in Taiwan, not since shortly after rapprochement with China and establishment of the current strategic ambiguity. The U.S. military is very careful about both what and who it officially permits to land on Taiwan. Occasionally (on the order of years) there are borderline cases, such a research vessel with U.S. Navy ties docking in Taiwan, and it becomes a huge thing in the Chinese media. AFAIU, high-level officers are rarely if ever given permission to enter Taiwan; direct military liaisons in Taiwan are limited to lower level staff officers. When this protocol is broken it's a tit-for-tat situation designed to send a message, and doesn't change anything of substance in how the relationship operates.

Anyhow, the U.S. has no need nor desire to establish a presence on Taiwan. Okinawa and Korea are more than close enough for its purposes, peaceful for otherwise. And if the U.S. were to try to establish a presence, you can be sure China's invasion fleet would reach Taiwan before any significant U.S. materiel could make it ashore.

Yes.

Taiwan is the only place China can have a deep water port required by a fleet of nuclear submarines. Mainland coast waters are too shallow.

China wants Taiwan orthgonally to any economic value it would provide. Reunification is pretty core to their mythos at this point.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if making Taiwan globally less economically relevant is core to their strategy for reunification. While the US is dependent on Taiwan for chips, Taiwan has a very important defense partner that China can't really compete with. But China has a way better chance of securing Taiwan if the rest of the global community only cares for ideological reasons.