In order to curb China's development, the United States has frequently played the "Taiwan card" against the mainland in recent years.
One after another provocations by the United States have also closed the door to negotiations between China and the United States.
Just after the door of Sino US negotiations was closed, an American think tank scholar Alpelovich's speech on China and TSMC caused heated discussion.
Because in the confrontation between China and the United States, the chip field is the most fierce confrontation. As one of the world's leading chip companies, TSMC has naturally become a weapon for the United States to fight against China.
In order to curb the rise of Huawei, the US think tank even dropped its harsh words: "Even if the two sides of the Taiwan Straits are unified, the Chinese mainland will never get TSMC!"
It is easy to see from this speech of the United States that the United States has reached the level of exasperation, and its suppression of China is unprecedented. It is puzzling that the United States has such an attitude towards TSMC.
Why did the United States persist in taking away TSMC, even if it would rather destroy TSMC than let it return to the hands of mainland China after the reunification of the two sides?
"Two swords coexist" Huawei and TSMC
The reason why the United States uses TSMC as a sharp edge against China is the intersection of Huawei and TSMC. The story of TSMC and Huawei can be traced back to 2000 at the earliest.
Despite the fact that TSMC has won the support of the United States, it is now clamouring so hard at Huawei, or boasting that "once Huawei loses TSMC, it will be in a desperate situation".
TSMC seems to forget that the reason why it can become one of the world's leading suppliers of chip technology cannot be separated from Huawei's support. The two complement each other, not to mention Huawei's one-way demand for it.
In order to expand the chip market, TSMC urgently needs to find a partner to digest its chips.
After observing for a while, Zhang Zhongmou finally focused on Huawei, and had to say that Zhang Zhongmou's vision was vicious.
In those days, Huawei was not a famous enterprise, but Zhang Zhongmou had a good eye for people and only looked at China because he saw Huawei as a potential stock.
TSMC and TSMC, one needs the chip market and the other attacks the mobile phone market. As a result of their interests, the two companies quickly establish and cooperate.
In the next ten years, the two people have made common progress like "old friends" of comrades, and the cooperation of more than ten years has also made the two sides more and more tacit understanding.
Huawei has created huge profits for TSMC. Its growth has driven the rapid development of TSMC. TSMC has become one of the largest suppliers of chips in mainland China.
At the same time, Huawei has also stabilized the mobile phone market because of the chip technology provided by TSMC. In turn, the expansion of Huawei's market and the continuous improvement of user demand have helped the development of TSMC's chip technology, and even made its technical strength equal to that of famous chip companies in the United States.
During this period, Huawei and TSMC were "well integrated", and TSMC gained a lot in mainland China, not only receiving "preferential treatment" in mainland China, but also being honored as "guests of honor".
The US "encircles" Huawei
Although the early cooperation between the two companies was quite smooth and the relationship seemed close, when the United States imposed sanctions on Huawei, TSMC's all acts made Huawei deeply feel the feeling of "flying separately in the face of disaster".
In 2019, the rapid development of Huawei's 5G technology made the US government anxious. The US government led by Trump launched sanctions against Huawei.
The sudden sanctions enabled Huawei to open a "self insurance mode". After the United States imposed sanctions on Huawei, it repeatedly adopted other sanctions.
When everyone thought that TSMC was lucky enough to "support" Huawei, TSMC made an unexpected move, and it fell to the United States.
When the United States first sanctioned Huawei, TSMC still maintained its cooperation with Huawei. However, after Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, TSMC completely changed its attitude. A few days after Pelosi returned to the United States, news came from Taiwan that Zhang Zhongmou intended to move TSMC to the United States.
Zhang Zhongmou's decision caused an uproar on both sides of the Taiwan Straits. Many people were more curious about how the United States "bullied" him, and even asked Zhang Zhongmou to move TSMC to the United States as soon as possible.
What is the reason why the United States is so anxious? The answer is not hard to guess. TSMC's chip technology is the world's top level. In addition to affirming TSMC's chip technology, the main reason why the United States wants to take TSMC away so much is that TSMC is Huawei's largest supplier.
Especially in high-end chips, Huawei's smartphone manufacturing almost relies on high-end chips provided by TSMC. Huawei's 5G technology has developed so rapidly that Americans think it has a lot to do with TSMC.
Therefore, as long as the source of Huawei's chips is cut off, the development of Huawei's chip technology can be curbed. So the United States, which has a good calculation, began to impose sanctions on Huawei.
When facing China, the United States ran into a wall again and again, and more and more angry Americans again put forward suggestions for the chip war.
First of all, the US government calls on other suppliers who mainly provide chips to China to stop their chip trade with China and fundamentally cut off China's chip development.
In fact, the United States did. After the United States issued its call, the Netherlands and South Korea took the lead in cutting off the supply of chips to China at the first time.
The United States tried to unite with major chip suppliers to "encircle" China. However, it was a pity that after the encirclement, China broke through strongly, making them lose their wives and lose their troops.
The second suggestion is to start from the United States itself, because when the United States "encircles" Huawei, China has also taken countermeasures against it, and China has restricted the export of chip manufacturing materials to the United States.
China's counter-measures also caught the United States off guard. In order to solve this problem, American think tank scholar Alpelovich proposed to strengthen the development of chip research and development and semiconductor diversification in the United States, in plain words, in order to reduce the dependence of the United States on China.
The third and fourth points are related to Taiwan. Even when the third point was raised, the United States also warned China: "Even if China forcibly unifies the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, China will not get any technology and products related to TSMC, and the United States will do its utmost to help Taiwan tide over the difficulties."
TSMC "Backward to America"
The purpose of the third and fourth points is obvious. The United States hopes to suppress the development of mainland China through TSMC, or even use it as a chip to affect the reunification process of the two sides. How does the United States operate?
In 2019, the United States announced that it would impose sanctions on Huawei. In 2020, the United States would send an olive branch to Zhang Zhongmou's TSMC and invite him to establish a TSMC electrical factory in the United States. In order to lure Zhang Zhongmou, the United States also threw a huge bait.
The United States said: "If TSMC can build factories in the United States, the United States will give TSMC more than $500 trillion in subsidies.".
"Of course, the condition is that a part of TSMC's turnover must also be attributed to the U.S. government. In addition, the most important thing is that TSMC must cut off its cooperation with mainland China, especially Huawei."
With regard to the olive branch delivered by the United States, many people are curious about the final choice TSMC will make. However, whatever the choice, it is certain that the US sanctions against Huawei will not stop, or even become more and more severe.
Under the heavy pressure of the United States, TSMC could not stand the pressure and chose to separate from its "old friends" who had fought together for more than ten years.
Huawei and TSMC finally headed in different directions. In the face of interests, TSMC succumbed. After weighing, TSMC finally announced to stop cooperation with Huawei, and at the same time, it also invested in the embrace of Americans.
As the Americans said, TSMC should never be allowed to fall into the hands of the mainland in any way, even if the two sides are reunified.
An "American ally" who feeds on its own evil consequences
Five years have passed since the United States imposed sanctions on Huawei. Until now, the United States has not stopped imposing sanctions on Huawei, and there is even a growing trend. So, has the United States succeeded in imposing sanctions on China?
Obviously not. In 2023, Huawei's independent and successful R&D chip came out. This technological breakthrough demonstrated the failure of the U.S. strategy of blocking China.
We cannot deny that Huawei suffered a serious setback at the beginning of the US blockade, even disrupting the pace of China. But it is also because of the US press, that China has made efforts to break through the blockade and achieved success.
Maybe Huawei still has a long way to go, but the future is bright. Compared with Huawei's successful breakthrough, these "allies" who are jointly sanctioned by the United States are embarrassed.
First, let's talk about the Netherlands and South Korea, which first responded to the call of the United States. Because they jumped too fast and too high, they were stretched to the waist. After the Netherlands and South Korea stopped providing chips to China, the sales of Dutch lithography machines became a problem.
Before that, China was also one of the largest importers of Dutch lithography machines, but the Netherlands could not understand the situation, and was arbitrarily made a "pioneer" against China by the United States. Such irrational practices completely killed themselves.
South Korea is also in the same situation as the Netherlands. A large number of chips in South Korea are difficult to sell, and other countries are not as large as China. It is impossible to sell, which ultimately damages the interests of South Korea.
Although the United States had made a promise of "compensation" to "anti China allies" before, today there is no sign of compensation.
Not to mention TSMC, after the establishment of the factory in the United States, TSMC was completely in the hands of the Americans.
Today's TSMC is quite "acclimatized" in the United States, and there are many difficulties in the United States. While it is busy, it also has to deal with American technology plunder.
Another is that even if TSMC really succeeds in building plants in the United States, it is still unknown whether TSMC will still have enough orders to support its operations in the future.
It is unknown whether Zhang Zhongmou felt regret when facing such a dilemma. TSMC, once honored as a guest of honor in mainland China, came to the United States, but only technology plunder and American oppression remained. Such a situation is regrettable.
Of course, no matter how TSMC develops, it has become eccentric with mainland China, and only hopes that it can take care of itself. It is even more impossible for the United States to try to recover the decline in mainland China through TSMC.
The Chinese mainland will never be subject to anyone, including Taiwan. No one can stop China's development, let alone the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Straits!
