By now, almost everyone has forgotten one of the very first “breaches of long standing protocol” that was violated by President Trump. What was that “breach of protocol”? He took a phone call on Dec. 2, 2016.
Who was on the other end of the call? It was President Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan (also known as the Republic of China) who called President Trump to congratulate him on his election victory. The phone call lasted about 10 minutes.
Former US State Department officials and the news media were aghast that President Trump spoke to President Tsai. This was against the long standing TRADITION of NOT speaking to a Taiwanese president. No US President has spoken to a Taiwanese President in over 40 years.
For some background, Taiwan is a multi-party democracy with an elected president and 5 equal branches of government. Under President Obama the US transferred about $14 BILLION in arms through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Taiwan. In less than 1 year, President Trump has authorized $1.4 BILLION in FMS arms.
What’s the big deal about taking a phone call from another democratically elected president? It goes against the “One China Policy“. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) which is mainland China, does not recognize the ROC, that is Taiwan as an independent country. The communist PRC considers the Taiwan as a part of China and under their rule. The communist PRC requires ALL COUNTRIES who wish to have a diplomatic RELATIONSHIP the PRC, must have NO DIPLOMATIC relationship with TAIWAN. Because of the “One China” policy the United States does not have an embassy in TAIWAN. We have a “Trade Headquarters” that for all practical purposes functions as an embassy, but is not formally called one. Right now there is a touchy situation as President Trump has ordered United States Marines to provide protection to our headquarters in Taiwan. This sort of protection is normally only provided to embassies. The PRC’s shorts are up in a bunch over this plan.
Given all the weird background of our relationship with TAIWAN, why should the United States give a crap about this pipsqueak island?
Here’s what I’ve been warning people about for YEARS!
There is one company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) that makes most of internal electronics used in practically all electronic devices. Parts made at TSMC are used in almost every cellphone, computer, television, aircraft, ship, car, train, military systems, the electrical grid, banking system, you name it. TSMC is right now spending $17 BILLION US to build the next generation fabrication plant (TSMC-18) that will by 2020 make the fastest, smallest, and lowest power electronics. Nowhere else in the world will this capability exist for large scale production of these new parts. And here’s the scary part.
TSMC make more than 55% of all semiconductors! The remaining 44% of capacity is split among a dozen other plants that only capture single digits percentage of capacity. Many of these smaller fabrication plants are in the PRC or in their close ally Singapore.
IF CHINA WERE TO FORMALLY CONTROL TAIWAIN, the communist PRC would control ALL SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING IN THE WORLD.
Think about that for a monment.
Communist China would be able to control access to and the prices of ALL ELECTRONICS in the WORLD!
Do you think that would be a good thing?
Additionally, if we were ever to have a conflict with Communist China or one of their allies, we would NOT be able to manufacture any high tech weapon systems.
- No more fighter jets.
- No more stealth bombers
- No more smart bombs.
- No more tanks.
- No more missiles.
- No more missile defense.
- No more cruise missiles.
- No more communications.
- No more Radars
- No more satellites.
- No more surveillance drones.
The best we could muster would be small arms or we could be like the Middle East protesters and chuck rocks.
We would not be able to repair any existing military electronics. We would never be able to create new advanced systems unless the PRC allowed us.
Does that make you feel safer?
Show of hands. How many of you progressive resisters think that President Trump establishing a good relationship with TAIWAN is bad? I suspect many hands would go up. We would just need Former President Obama to make another Nobel winning speech in Egypt to prevent any worry of Communist China domination.