Power Play

Taiwan chips loom large in US-China tech war

Taiwan’s outsized role in the semiconductor industry raises strategic questions of dependence on the island as a source of chips, which now power everything from smartphones to missiles.

This is the tech war between China and the US as the world's two largest economies battle for technological supremacy. PHOTO: REUTERS

This month, another Taiwanese semiconductor firm found its sales crimped, when a key Chinese customer was put on a US blacklist over alleged military links.

Alchip Technologies provided chip design services and intellectual property to Tianjin Phytium Information Technology and helped it outsource production to TSMC.

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