Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow - Kuomintang, Nvidia, TSMC

If there is a black swan lurking in global markets as we go into 2026, it is surely this small island off the coast of China that makes over 90pc of the world’s advanced semiconductors but speaks Chinese, is largely Han Chinese, is claimed by China and has been subjected to an intensifying campaign of naval, air and cyber strangulation by Chinese forces under Xi’s “Anaconda Strategy”.


Kuomintang, the political descendants of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek have kissed and made up with their historic enemies in the Chinese Communist Party. Or put another way, the movement that controls the Taiwanese parliament seems to regard Xi Jinping’s regime as the lesser poison.

Nvidia may trade at double the valuation of the whole German stock market but at the end of day, the US tech champion is largely a “fabless” design company that outsources its production of GPUs (graphic processing units). 

Its artificial intelligence chips are turned into hard reality by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) at foundries along the west coast of silicon island.

Cheng Li-wun, the Kuomintang’s new leader, has undergone the full conversion. Once a firebrand island nationalist, she now talks of leading Taiwan into China’s orbit and “making all Taiwanese proud to be Chinese”.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Telegraph 17 December 2025

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/12/17/ukraine-today-taiwan-tomorrow/


Nationalist Kina

Chiang Kai-shek var en nationalistisk kinesisk militär och politiker. Han var Kinas ledare från 1927 till inbördeskrigets slut 1949.

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/04/nationalist-kina.html



U.S. announces $10 billion arms sale to Taiwan, including missiles and drones

The Trump administration has announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion that includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, a move that is sure to infuriate China. 
The eight arms sales agreements announced Wednesday cover 82 high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, and 420 Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS 

Under federal law, the U.S. is obligated to assist Taiwan with its self-defense, a point that has become increasingly contentious with China, which has vowed to take Taiwan by force, if necessary.
The State Department announced the sales late Wednesday 

MarketWatch/Associated Press  Dec. 17, 2025


Kommentarer

Skicka en kommentar

Populära inlägg i den här bloggen

Pfizer in 2019 sold $20 billion of drugs in the U.S. Its federal tax bill? Zero; Ireland

Trump has already singled out pharma companies and countries like Ireland that reap the benefits of tax-avoidance moves.  Despite its small size, Ireland ran an $87 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year—larger than any country except China, Mexico and Vietnam. https://www.wsj.com/health/pharma/how-trumps-tariffs-could-upend-pharmas-overseas-tax-strategy-5b8ca758 Is Ireland vulnerable again as the world’s vast shadow banking system starts to crack? Shadow banking is the dog that has not barked during the latest global spasm of financial stress. This is very fortunate, especially for small countries such as Ireland that have bet the farm on this industry. https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2023/04/is-ireland-vulnerable-again-as-worlds.html Cayman Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands What the heck is happening in the Cayman Islands? A Sunny Place for a Shady Online Business https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-sunny-place-for-shady-online-business.html Ti...
Läs mer

My blogg short index

Bild
1968 Vojne, vojne, vänsterdårarna kommer AI Artificial intelligence https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/06/ai-artificial-intelligence.html Akvedukten vid Zaghouan, Sven Otto Littorin och Niall Ferguson. Denna vackra betraktelse från 1994 har sedan dess legat i mitt bakhuvud. https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2024/04/akvedukten-vid-zaghouan-sven-otto.html Alistair Darling, Northern Rock och Royal Bank of Scotland https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/alistair-darling.html Bank stress tests https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/06/bank-stress-tests.html Bessent https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/06/bessent.html Gordon Brown https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/gordon-brown_5.html Buy the dip https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/buy-dip.html Fastighetsbolagen https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/fastighetsbolagen.html Tomas Fischer https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/tomas-fischer.html James Grant https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/james-grant.h...
Läs mer

Things might be different this time; mitt senaste storverk

Bild
The breakdown of monetarism During the past decade, the links between economic activity, inflation, and monetary policy that were taken for granted in the 1980s and 1990s have completely broken down.  The pre-crisis dogma that inflation “is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon” has turned out to be nonsense, at least for advanced economies, where central banks have printed money like wallpaper without any inflationary response. Anatole Kaletsky Project Syndicate 23 April 2019 https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2019/05/equity-prices-bond-prices-qand.html Detta är den grundläggande tanken för det som följer: Det fördes länge en debatt om vilket M som skulle vara bäst för att förutse framtiden. Själv har jag tänkt mig att hushåll och företag har en skattkista där överst finns kassa och bank, längre ner värdepapper, belåningsmöjligheter och fastigheter och längst ner "The Family Silver". https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/01/vad-ar-pengar-m1-m2-m3-osv-monetary.html So, ...
Läs mer