The the cold war that the United States and China already have has Taiwan as one of the hottest places. If in the past many thought the delivery of the archipelago to China was a good idea, today it is the opposite, forcing corporations operating in Taiwan to install measures that would be activated in the event of an invasion. Of particular importance here are TSMC, a local microconductor company, and ASML, a Dutch company that is the only manufacturer of extreme ultraviolet (UVE) machines used in lithography.

As a result of a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Both TSMC and ASML have implemented measures that allow them to disable their machines remotely, thereby preventing the Chinese government and corporations from taking over their technology.. ASML has assured the Dutch government that it can remotely disable its EUV machines, which are used to make chips used in many areas, including artificial intelligence and military applications.

TSMC’s and ASML’s measures to remotely disable their machines and prevent Chinese appropriation of their technology stem in part from pressures from the United States and the context that currently exists in Taiwan, which in some ways may become a version of the Asian war that is currently takes place in Ukraine as a result of the invasion by Russia.

Beyond a technological curiosity, the fact that TSMC and ASML have used measures to disable, and we assume, their machines, remotely reveals that the situation around Taiwan is hotter than meets the eye. In addition to the hegemony of the United States, the conflict between the People’s Republic of China, a country located mainly on the Asian continent and ruled by the Communist Party, and the Republic of China, an archipelago and a country most of us know, coincides here as in Taiwan and whose regime is capitalist but which was not democratic until the 1990s.

To put it very simply, Taiwan’s existence comes from a civil war in China that pitted the Nationalists against the Communists. The first lost the war and took refuge mainly on the island of Taiwan, where a state officially called the Republic of China was established. As a result of this context, Taiwan, or at least many Taiwanese, not only defend the independence of the archipelago, but consider themselves a legitimate Chinese state, including mainland China controlled by the Communist Party. Obviously, it also works the other way around, sovereignty over the Taiwan archipelago is claimed by the People’s Republic of China.

In other words, the pressures of the United States to maintain its hegemony in the world (or to maintain what it can) are nothing more than an accelerator. a conflict that has existed for decades between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, who dispute that they are the authentic and legitimate government of all Chinese. Here it is important to consider the development of both countries, and while freedoms are very limited in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan is considered a very consolidated democracy and is, along with Nepal, the only country in Asia where same-sex marriage is legal throughout area.

As we can see, Taiwan has become an area of ​​high strategic value for both the United States and China to avoid losing more hegemony and the second because the annexation of the archipelago would allow it to advance in many positions and In addition to ending the conflict, which took decades, a lot of technology needs to be done.