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Samsung may spend $200 billion on 11 Texas fabs over 20 years

TAP TIMES -15-

Taiwan (from 14)

While the petty ban on Taiwan’s citrus may
appear to be like the childish reactions of
a grammar school bully, China is an impor-
tant trade partner for the island. China, in
fact, is Taiwan’s largest trade partner.

Top trade partner
In 2021, Taiwan’s imports to mainland
China represented $126.2 billion, some
28.2%. The U.S. was second with $65.9
billion, 14.7 percent.

Hong Kong, although part of China, is
treated separately. It imported almost as
much as the U.S. in 2021 with $63.1 bil-
lion, 14.1%. Japan was fourth with $29./3
billion or 6.5%.

In an August 2022 interview on CNN,
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of
the Washgton-based U.S.-Taiwan Business
Council, said

“Worrying shift”
“. . . now we’re starting to see a worrying
shift that we may be entertaining the no-
tion that China’s considerations, its inter-
ests in the Strait, are going to be ascen-
dant again in U.S. policy.

“That worries U.S. investors because we,
the U.S. business community, wants to
feel like the U.S. government has its back
in investing in Taiwan. And when that isn’t
the case, it causes concern all the way up
and down the companies.”

While, hopefully it may never come to
pass, China’s disruption to Taiwan’s semi-
conductor industry — which has become
de fact — the world’s key chip supplier —
would severely impact the industry as we
know it today.