Summary

Taiwan’s government is closely monitoring reports that SpaceX has requested its Taiwanese suppliers to relocate manufacturing to countries like Vietnam and Thailand due to “geopolitical” concerns, specifically potential conflict with China.

Taiwan’s Economic Affairs Minister JW Kuo expressed confidence in Taiwan’s resilient supply chain but acknowledged the situation.

The request has sparked anger in Taiwan, with some accusing Musk of being ungrateful for local suppliers. The incident has also garnered attention in China, with some praising Musk’s foresight regarding China’s unification goals.

    • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      But doesn’t Trump hate China?

      Obviously he’s extremely succeptable to bribery/flattery etc so he could easily “art of the deal” Taiwan off to China.

      Personally I feel like he’s definitely having a vindictive king renaissance so I’m expecting a lot of inflexible decisions made entirely on impulse - because that’s exactly what the people want.

      Don’t know if I see him going to war with China as getting bribed is better than fighting and potentially losing. Plus, fighting implies you don’t have enough power/influence to win without fighting and Trump is all about projecting power.

      If he does want war, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an American foreign legion formed out of the 20 million immigrants he wants to deport

          • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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            16 days ago

            We are analyzing why Musk would get his business out of Taiwan. One possible reason is that Elon expects Trump to defend Taiwan, since either China not attacking or a very quick Chinese victory leave businesses largely intact.

  • JeffKerman1999
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    17 days ago

    Yeah so musk knows that trump will roll over and china do whatever

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      17 days ago

      People are saying Trump will cause WWIII. I don’t think so. I think Trump will create Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. No point in having a war with each other if you can just take whatever territory the other two don’t want and the other two won’t interfere.

      • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        WWIII was already about to happen, now the spinning plates are being handed to the closest thing we’ve got to the antichrist. Sorry for sounding bothered

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          17 days ago

          But with who? Trump isn’t going to go up against Putin and Putin and Xi are allies, so he won’t go up against Xi either.

          Much easier for all of them to turn a blind eye to each other for the foreseeable future with three authoritarians in charge.

          • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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            17 days ago

            So you’re imagining a stable power vacuum as the greatest superpower in history willfully shrinks due to the leadership of a foreign asset?

            Respectfully, why?

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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              17 days ago

              No, I said what I was imagining:

              I think Trump will create Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. No point in having a war with each other if you can just take whatever territory the other two don’t want and the other two won’t interfere.

              There is no power vacuum there.

              • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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                17 days ago

                I just don’t see how that translates to the game board as it stands without a world war ensuing. There are enough nuclear powers in the world that someone is popping off before we get there.

      • fluxion@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        Imagine deporting all immigrants and then waging war to bring their countries under your control. It’s just insane enough that I could see MAGA doing it.

        • Billiam@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          I mean, once all the work that immigrants do now stops getting done, someone is gonna have to do it. And slaves are cheaper than Americans who might demand a livable wage.

          • JeffKerman1999
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            17 days ago

            Don’t worry, Americans right now don’t have a livable wage

          • fluxion@lemmy.world
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            17 days ago

            Why look elsewhere when we have perfectly healthy children that could fill in some of the gaps?

            • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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              17 days ago

              Or prisoners. Just might need to conveniently jail a lot of dissidents soon.

    • Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      That they have no intention of defending Taiwan would be my guess.

      Probably because Donald thinks Elon can spin up competitive manufacturing by jumping three times fast.

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        17 days ago

        That they have no intention of defending Taiwan would be my guess.

        You’re reading this backwards; war would cut US interests in Taiwan. If anything, this is preparing for the US to try to defend Taiwan.

  • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    Why the fuck would they do that? Those plants are the only things keeping US interests with Taiwan. Does anyone actually believe the US would guard them so heavily if they didn’t have resources we needed?

  • sylver_dragon@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    It’s a dick move, but I can kinda understand why SpaceX would make it. There has been a push to “de-risk” supply chains, after the disruptions caused by Covid, Russia’s invasion of Ukranie, and other world events. This type of de-risking was partly responsible for the CHIPS and Science Act. The US Government has a strategic incentive to have a stable and resilient supply chain for semiconductors.

    For SpaceX, having critical components be only available from fabs in Taiwan is a risk to business. China has been more and more vocal about it’s desire to annex Taiwan. With Trump taking office, one can imagine that the US commitment to protect Taiwan may not be quite as iron clad as it has been in the past. It’s not hard to imagine a future where China launches an invasion of Taiwan and the US does little more than shrug. At that point, any business which is solely reliant on Taiwan for semiconductors is going to see major disruptions.

    So ya, it’s a complete dick move. But, I suspect SpaceX will be far from the last company looking to build a supply chain outside Taiwan.

  • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    Not a Musk fan. I haven’t been on shitter for over a year.

    This is not necessarily a bad thing from a US perspective.

    Starlink is a strategic asset for the United States.

    It shouldn’t be in danger of being destroyed by an attack by China.