I will make sure that America not China wins the
competition for the 21st century. Two candidates with two
different approaches toward Beijing. To me, the most
beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff caught in the
middle is Taiwan, which relies on the US for
security guarantees but has deep economic and cultural ties to
mainland China. There are signs of a cross straight
decoupling including fewer people self identifying as Chinese. Yet
Donald Trump's criticisms are just one reason Taipei's trust in
the US is also at risk. Skepticism towards Washington
has been increasing in the last few years. We
need to chart our own way and not completely depend
on Washington and not completely economically depend on Beijing is
hugely important. Who is next in the White House
matters to keep chip companies on the island facing uncertainty
over industry support in the states. While Beijing pushes
to level the tech playing field, the entire ecosystem
and semiconductor has to face actually stronger competition from China
. At the same time with the United States,
it's not really clear how much of the subsidies will
be coming to Taiwanese manufacturers. So net net for
it's a loss pressure on Taiwanese chip firms to offshore
. At least some production is unlikely to abate even
if UBS is among those who see essential operations.
Staying put the core, the benefit of this ecosystem
R and D technology development cost is quite competitive here
. So I think for Taiwan, they're going to
try to keep it controlled, keep a core base
here and diversify what they need to retaining crucial semi
production on the island carries a risk. As worries
swirl that tensions between Beijing and Taipei could spiral into
military conflict. A conflict of some sort is very
, very likely. If you think about the need
to choose between the US and China, I think
it's a very difficult one. Still. Taiwan's government
and big business alike say they are ready to work
with either new US leader. I don't worry about
the Republic or the Democratic Parties. We already experienced
many of the presidential elections and then we mitigate risk
and maximize opportunities.