Strategic Geography
🇹🇼Taiwan
Taiwan is simultaneously the core node of advanced semiconductor manufacturing and a focal point of geopolitical risk — the two cannot be discussed separately. This section collects analysis involving Taiwan: supply chain positioning, regional security dynamics, and how shifting international rules affect Taiwanese firms in practice.
12 analyses
The Power to Freeze: How Stablecoins Carry U.S. Financial Sanctions onto the Blockchain
In 2026 Tether froze more than $470 million of USDT at wallets tied to Iran's central bank. Washington's power to freeze comes from dollar clearing, and stablecoins extend it on-chain: the GENIUS Act requires issuers to be able to freeze, burn or block transfers on the order of a court or federal agency, and foreign issuers that cannot comply lose the American market. Immutable code and an adversary's own token lie beyond its reach, but CIPS, mBridge, the digital yuan and the digital euro reach nowhere near as far as the dollar. Taiwan's banks, exporters and life insurers sit inside the system.
After the Cable Breaks: How Repair Capacity Shapes a State's Strategic Choices
Two Baltic cables damaged in 2024 were routed around and repaired within two weeks; when both Matsu cables failed in 2023, even emergency-expanded microwave links could back up only about 40% of traffic. Identifying the ship, proving intent and proving state involvement are separate bars, and recent cases stop at the first two. Repair and redundancy are among the few responses that need no culprit — yet repairs worldwide are slowing, mostly because of permits.
The Statement That Never Came: A Chinese Missile Test Exposes the Deeper Contest in Pacific Diplomacy
After a Chinese submarine test-launched a strategic missile into the Pacific, the Forum's foreign ministers could not agree on a statement. A failure to agree on wording repays more study than a strongly worded communiqué: the same consensus rule that let small states constrain nuclear powers in 1985, and blocked Beijing's regional security package in 2022, has now blocked the Forum's own statement. The institution has not changed — the structure of interests has.
Papua New Guinea in the New South Pacific Order: Security Alliance via the Pukpuk Treaty, Multi-Market Hedging, and Compartmentalized Diplomacy
Papua New Guinea is deepening its military alignment with Australia under the Pukpuk Treaty and granting the US defense access, while expanding trade with Beijing and praising major Chinese investments. This 'compartmentalized alignment' is meant as a hedge, but as the lines between security, energy, and port infrastructure blur, the cost of policy ambiguity is rising fast.
From Austronesian Kinship to Territorial Claims: Chinese Scholars Push Batanes Islands into New Sovereignty Dispute
A recent seminar at Jinan University in China cited geography, Austronesian kinship, and colonial history to claim that the Batanes Islands belong to Taiwan and legally fall under Chinese claim. The dispute is still confined to academics and the Philippine government, but it shows how cultural and historical narratives are being drawn into the strategic contest over the Luzon Strait.
Lawfare in the West Pacific: How Beijing Exploits Japan-Philippines Border Talks to Advance Gray-Zone Operations East of Taiwan
As Japan and the Philippines initiate maritime boundary negotiations, Beijing has quickly recast this routine legal process as a sovereignty conflict. By running coast guard patrols and harassing merchant vessels east of Taiwan, China aims to make its claimed jurisdiction there look routine and enforceable.
Global Backlash Against China's 'Ethnic Unity Law': The Most Disunited Regime Needs Unity Written into Law
China's new law packages domestic assimilation and external long-arm jurisdiction under the guise of 'unity,' sparking concern and countermeasures from democracies worldwide.
China's Biotech Supply Chain Advances: How the US Redraws the Safety Borders of the Biomedical Industry
U.S. biotech policy is shifting. Through the Biosecure Act, the COINS Act, and BINSA, Washington is redrawing the boundaries around supply chains, capital, and clinical research to keep advances in dual-use biotechnology from bolstering China's commercial and military capabilities.
The Price of the Silicon Alliance: Pax Silica, the MATCH Act, and the New Reality of Tech Sovereignty
Pax Silica marks a deeper industrial realignment in U.S. technology alliance policy. This article examines how the MATCH Act pushes allies toward common export controls, and how the EU, India, and Taiwan are building policy firewalls to protect their technological sovereignty.
The Ebbing Outsourcing Dividend: How India's GCCs Are Redefining Taiwan's Landscape of Collaboration and Competition
The slump in Indian IT outsourcing stocks shows an old business model being revalued. But India is repositioning itself through Global Capability Centers (GCCs), moving from outsourcing contractor to a hub for multinationals' core capabilities, R&D, and AI deployment.
The First Island Chain Enters Institutionalization: How the Senate Version of the 2027 NDAA Adjusts the Indo-Pacific Security Architecture
The U.S. Senate's 2027 NDAA draft expands the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative into a First Island Chain initiative that adds the Philippines, moving Indo-Pacific security from policy rhetoric toward institutional design.
The Next Move in the Chip War: Reconstructing the Semiconductor Supply Chain in the AI Era
Where geopolitics, economics, and AI development intersect, the semiconductor supply chain is no longer just a question of efficiency but a core concern of national security and strategy. This article examines how global companies balance constraints and opportunities.