• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Disruption of Taiwan chip industry would cause economic crisis: Blinken

ROC Central News Agency

10/18/2022 11:53 AM

Washington, Oct. 17 (CNA) Countries around the world have a stake in maintaining peace and security in the Taiwan Strait as any disruption of Taiwanese semiconductor production would lead to a global economic crisis, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.

Speaking about U.S. policy on Taiwan during a conversation with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at Stanford University, Blinken said a hallmark of U.S. policy across party lines has been an insistence that differences between Beijing and Taiwan be handled peacefully.

In recent years, however, Beijing has become determined to pursue reunification "on a much faster timeline," and has begun entertaining the use of coercive or even forceful measures if peaceful means don't work, he said.

"That is what is profoundly disrupting the status quo and creating tremendous tensions," he said.

Blinken argued this alleged change in Beijing's approach to Taiwan should be a matter of international concern, given the "enormous" amount of commercial traffic in the Taiwan Strait and the significant economic implications if that traffic were to be halted by a conflict.

Citing semiconductors as an example, Blinken warned that if Taiwanese production were disrupted as a result of a crisis, "you would have an economic crisis around the world."

For this reason, there is "a profound stake not just for us, but for countries around the world in preserving peace and stability" in the Taiwan Strait, and ensuring that existing differences are resolved peacefully, he said.

During the conversation, Blinken also said that while the U.S. will continue to make good on its commitments to Taiwan's self-defense under the Taiwan Relations Act, it also remains fundamentally committed to its "one China" policy.

"That hasn't changed. That won't change," he said. "But at the heart of that was a commitment to resolve those differences peacefully, and if that's changing, then that does offer...prospects for very challenging situations going forward," he added.

(By Chiang Chin-yeh and Matthew Mazzetta)

Enditem/ls