Taiwan and the Geopolitics of Microchips

If semiconductors are the “new oil,” then Taiwan’s dominance in making tiny chips packs a huge punch.

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Last week, Ford Motor Co. became the latest in a bevy of carmakers to announce production halts due to a global shortage of microchips. The Chinese military tested a sophisticated new armed reconnaissance drone and conducted a massive exercise in the South China Sea simulating an amphibious assault on Taiwan. President Xi Jinping ordered the […]

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Phillip Orchard
Phillip Orchard is an analyst at Geopolitical Futures. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Orchard spent nearly six years at Stratfor, working as an editor and writing about East Asian geopolitics. He’s spent more than six years abroad, primarily in Southeast Asia and Latin America, where he’s had formative, immersive experiences with the problems arising from mass political upheaval, civil conflict and human migration. Mr. Orchard holds a master’s degree in Security, Law and Diplomacy from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, where he focused on energy and national security, Chinese foreign policy, intelligence analysis, and institutional pathologies. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas. He speaks Spanish and some Thai and Lao.