1/8/2023
U.S. Waged War on China’s Chips; South Korea, Taiwan Felt the Fallout
When United States President Joe Biden made his inaugural trip to South Korea as president in May, his first stop was a massive semiconductor production facility operated by Samsung Electronics.
The choice signalled Biden’s recognition of the importance of both Samsung, South Korea’s biggest conglomerate and a major investor in the US, and semiconductors, the chips that power countless modern appliances and sit at the centre of a growing US-China rivalry that encompasses business and geopolitics.
“Semiconductors power our economies and enable our modern lives, from our automobiles to our smartphones to medical diagnostic equipment,” Biden said at the factory before touting chips as the next frontier in the alliance between the US and South Korea that dates back to the 1950-1953 Korean War.
“And by uniting our skills and our technological know-how, it allows the production of chips that are critical to both our countries and are essential – essential – sectors of our global economy.”
But several months removed from that visit, the picture of mutually beneficial cooperation presented by Biden is being complicated by US measures to both restore its own manufacturing base and confront China.
Source: Al Jazeera
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