Taiwan: Silicon Shield or Silicon Extortion?

The U.S.–Taiwan trade deal supports democracy.

U.S. President Donald Trump, accompanied by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (L) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) CEO C.C. Wei (R), speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on March 3, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Commentary

Taiwan and the United States have agreed to a set of deals that will remove or reduce 99 percent of Taiwan’s tariffs on U.S. exports and facilitate up to $250 billion of Taiwanese investment in the United States. The deals have security implications due to their support for U.S. semiconductor reshoring, which erodes Taiwan’s “silicon shield” but will help protect these strategic assets from a Chinese invasion.