No industry matters more to Taiwan than chipmaking. That’s because semiconductors power everything—from mobile phones to electric cars—and Taiwan makes the most advanced ones in the world.

Taiwan’s chips also give the world an economic reason to protect the island from a Chinese invasion. But now America and China are competing to control the supply of these sophisticated chips. And that puts Taiwan in the middle of the two superpowers.

For the second episode of a four-part series on the future of Taiwan, David Rennie, The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, and Alice Su, our senior China correspondent, ask whether semiconductors could save Taiwan from attack.

Henry Hsieh, a former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company engineer, and his wife, Lin Cai-wen, explain the part Taiwanese people played in China’s economic growth. C.C. Chen, Taiwan’s deputy minister of economic affairs, explains how the island’s trade policy has changed as the threat from China has grown.

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Drum Tower: Can chips save Taiwan?

Drum Tower from The Economist