Good for them, I don't see this as a big deal other than my fear of west china invading china (taiwan! :) ).

Don't get me wrong, I want the west to succeed, but a competition from China is exactly what is needed. They're building datacenters in arizona and india for TSMC because of this competition.

I really hope we get past historical political rivalry and get along with China better. Competition is good, hostility sucks.

Give you some more historical context: China (ROC) planned to invade west China until the plan was given up in 60's. Both sides want reunification by force. When China's navy and air force was superior in early 1950's, it tried to "establish blockade of trade with west China (PRC) along the Chinese coast" (1)

China eventually gave up the plan in 1960's not because it didn't want to but because the balance of the power weighting over to west China. In 80's and 90's both agree to make peace given the premise that both sides belong to China.

TSMC was a product of industry policy from None-democratic China government. The founder Charles Chang ， an American born in the west China ，never visited China before 50 years old.

Both China (before 90') and west China want to reunite , by force or not. The motivation has little to do chip although US thought that's the critical incentive. West China will still let TSMC provide the chip to the world in case it successfully invaded China in my view.

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_the_Tuapse

> get along with China better.

This will probably never happen. All countries are rivals, and the semblance of cooperation is really just the manifestation of a power imbalance.

China grew into their big boy pants and can hold their own on the international stage. They have no need to be cooperative because they are in the International Superpower Club. Their strategic ambitions do not align with those of their rivals, and they are strong enough to not need to play nice anymore.

Now that the US has also dropped their visage of being the benevolent world leader, there's even less reason for China to pretend to be cooperative. At this point, it's a matter of who is more apt to invade your country, US or China? And you buy weapons from the other one.

Maybe we see more "cooperation" between China and the EU or South America. But that will be entirely because those regions are under duress.

> I don't see this as a big deal other than my fear of west china invading china (taiwan! :) ).

Isn't that "other than" clause a big deal, though? I've read a survey and a number of articles from defense and foreign policy types, and the general feeling is there's a ~25% chance that China will invade Taiwan this decade. That's really damn big. If there's rollback in Taiwan then the first island chain could plausibly fall, or if not you will surely see Japan and maybe South Korea nuclearize. Why must we keep assuming the best with these security calculations instead of believing someone when they keep saying what they're going to do?

The more China advances domestically, especially in this area, the less it has to gain from invading Taiwan. China is getting to the point where the conquest is finally doable (rapidly advancing and massive military, plus a weak US president), but the potential gains are diminishing year to year.

I'd speculate that if they don't invade during Trump's term, they never will, and will pursue a different course down the road. China is nothing if not patient.