Because China is about to attack Taiwan, which has 60%+ of the world computer chips.
That means no iPhones, no Snapdragon (Android phones), no XBox, no PS5, no AMD (Servers), no AMD/Xilinx (aka: F35), no NVidia GPUs if that attack goes off successfully. It’d be a major effect on the US technology sector, which is where I’m employed (and where many others are employed). This is a vital economic and technological issue.
If we lose the upcoming China vs Taiwan fight, its not just like “Oh I feel bad” like the Ukrainian situation (trust me, I’m hugely supportive of the Ukrainians). But Ukraine doesn’t have a major economy / export tied to the USA’s economy like Taiwan does.
China has made something like 400 nuclear weapons in the past 5 years or so. They’re preparing for something. The current bets are on a Taiwan invasion, which has been a sorespot for them for the past century.
I don’t think China is going to use those nukes per se, they just want nuclear parity with “somebody”. So its clear they’re likely planning to attack USA (or some other major nuclear power), which would coincide with a Taiwan attack (USA would almost certainly rush to protect this vital economic center for us, leading into a China vs USA war). The nukes are the just-in-case option for China, its likely going to try to stay conventional.
If China shoots first, it won’t be USA alone. Philippines, Japan, Korea, and Australia will rally because they’d be most concerned about an expansionist China fucking up their side of the world.
But USA’s Navy and Marines would be expected to put in some degree of work for sure.
Isn’t the UN supposed to help out with those issues, like Ukraine?
UN isn’t a military alliance. So no. NATO is Atlantic-focused, so they’re not the right group either.
This isn’t a world policeman be the good guy situation though. This is a simple ‘our economy won’t work without Taiwan so we probably want to protect them’.
Um yeah. I’m a programmer. My livelihood kind of requires computers.
people would have to pay more for phones
No. You don’t understand. TSMC is the only factory that can make the iPhone chip in the world. When Taiwan is attacked, we’re almost certainly going to lose iPhones all together as the supply line locks up. If China permanently captures Taiwan, then it is going to be years before Apple can switch to Samsung / Korea or some alternative. Literally years, maybe nearly a decade. This isn’t “few less phones”, its “literally no iPhone chips for an extended period of time”.
Do you remember the big chip crisis of 2020 ? That was TSMC falling behind on a few orders. No chip factory ever got shutdown, it was just a minor supply blip from TSMC. Do you remember how that little blip cascaded into no cars, record high prices in electronics and other such disastrous events to our economy?
Now we’re trying to build a new supply chain that’s resilient to minor blips like that. But that takes even longer (and the Arizona TSMC plant continues to face delays in opening).
I don’t really think it’s important enough to go to war over. We have enough chips here to run things as is, and if there is a need we can have factories elsewhere. There are enough used phones to go around in the meantime. Most people don’t need new devices all the time. Our economy is based on the lie that growth is infinitely possible and that that’s something we want.
Every single Li-ion battery has a safety chip inside of it, a computer, likely made in Taiwan.
An EV requires absurd numbers of chips to build the battery management system, as well as all other electronics.
At a minimum, electrification will be stalled out when Taiwan gets attacked. Much like how we ran out of cars in 2021, it will be far worse.
This isn’t just consumer electronics yo. It is fucking everything of the modern world. Antilock brakes? Thermostat. Industrial plant automation. Weapons. ECG monitor / healthcare.
Even the COVID-19 vaccine was made on a supercomputer simulation.
Because China is about to attack Taiwan, which has 60%+ of the world computer chips.
That means no iPhones, no Snapdragon (Android phones), no XBox, no PS5, no AMD (Servers), no AMD/Xilinx (aka: F35), no NVidia GPUs if that attack goes off successfully. It’d be a major effect on the US technology sector, which is where I’m employed (and where many others are employed). This is a vital economic and technological issue.
If we lose the upcoming China vs Taiwan fight, its not just like “Oh I feel bad” like the Ukrainian situation (trust me, I’m hugely supportive of the Ukrainians). But Ukraine doesn’t have a major economy / export tied to the USA’s economy like Taiwan does.
China has made something like 400 nuclear weapons in the past 5 years or so. They’re preparing for something. The current bets are on a Taiwan invasion, which has been a sorespot for them for the past century.
I don’t think China is going to use those nukes per se, they just want nuclear parity with “somebody”. So its clear they’re likely planning to attack USA (or some other major nuclear power), which would coincide with a Taiwan attack (USA would almost certainly rush to protect this vital economic center for us, leading into a China vs USA war). The nukes are the just-in-case option for China, its likely going to try to stay conventional.
Are you saying the United States is planning to conduct an imminent war, by ourselves, on China on behalf of Taiwan?
Isn’t the UN supposed to help out with those issues, like Ukraine?
If China shoots first, it won’t be USA alone. Philippines, Japan, Korea, and Australia will rally because they’d be most concerned about an expansionist China fucking up their side of the world.
But USA’s Navy and Marines would be expected to put in some degree of work for sure.
UN isn’t a military alliance. So no. NATO is Atlantic-focused, so they’re not the right group either.
I guess I don’t see why the United States needs to be the world police with our military. We have tried this before and it’s not gone well.
This isn’t a world policeman be the good guy situation though. This is a simple ‘our economy won’t work without Taiwan so we probably want to protect them’.
Maybe a few tech companies would lose profits and people would have to pay more for phones, not that important to me.
Um yeah. I’m a programmer. My livelihood kind of requires computers.
No. You don’t understand. TSMC is the only factory that can make the iPhone chip in the world. When Taiwan is attacked, we’re almost certainly going to lose iPhones all together as the supply line locks up. If China permanently captures Taiwan, then it is going to be years before Apple can switch to Samsung / Korea or some alternative. Literally years, maybe nearly a decade. This isn’t “few less phones”, its “literally no iPhone chips for an extended period of time”.
Do you remember the big chip crisis of 2020 ? That was TSMC falling behind on a few orders. No chip factory ever got shutdown, it was just a minor supply blip from TSMC. Do you remember how that little blip cascaded into no cars, record high prices in electronics and other such disastrous events to our economy?
Now we’re trying to build a new supply chain that’s resilient to minor blips like that. But that takes even longer (and the Arizona TSMC plant continues to face delays in opening).
I don’t really think it’s important enough to go to war over. We have enough chips here to run things as is, and if there is a need we can have factories elsewhere. There are enough used phones to go around in the meantime. Most people don’t need new devices all the time. Our economy is based on the lie that growth is infinitely possible and that that’s something we want.
Every single Li-ion battery has a safety chip inside of it, a computer, likely made in Taiwan.
An EV requires absurd numbers of chips to build the battery management system, as well as all other electronics.
At a minimum, electrification will be stalled out when Taiwan gets attacked. Much like how we ran out of cars in 2021, it will be far worse.
This isn’t just consumer electronics yo. It is fucking everything of the modern world. Antilock brakes? Thermostat. Industrial plant automation. Weapons. ECG monitor / healthcare.
Even the COVID-19 vaccine was made on a supercomputer simulation.