It makes nearly all of the world's most advanced computer chips.

So other countries, like the U.S., have a vested interest in defending the island from a Chinese invasion.

But the 2022 Bipartisan Chips Act brought TSMC, Taiwan's largest chip manufacturer, and others to build fabs in the U.S.

But Trump wants more.

Taiwan took our chip business away and will be taking back a big, big portion of that industry.

We want it back in the United States.

And if they don't bring it back, we're not going to be very happy.

Now TSMC has announced an additional $100 billion U.S.

We are going to build three more new fabs.

Alexander Yu, the Taiwanese representative to the U.S., sat down with Wall Street Journal trade reporter Gavin Bade in his first interview since Trump took office to talk about Taiwanese chip investment in the U.S. and how it could affect the shield.

Well, Representative Yu, thank you so much for sitting down with The Wall Street Journal.

It's a pleasure, Gavin.

We saw President Trump have some negative comments about the Chips Act.

Chips Act is a horrible, horrible thing.

This ridiculous program that Biden has.

Give everybody billions of dollars.

They already have billions of dollars.

How does your government view those comments?

And could TSMC actually be investing in building in the U.S. if those Chips Act incentives somehow went away?

Obviously, the Chips Act is an incentive for them to be here.

There are other incentives.

Obviously, companies will go to places where they think the revenues will be positive for them.

So it's more than just Chips Act.

Taiwan's investment 10 years ago, 83 plus percent was going to China, mainland China.

But last year, our outbound investment to China was less than 9 percent.

But last year, 40 percent of that investment came to the United States.

This repositioning of Taiwan's presence in manufacturing is already occurring.

And with President Trump's calling for the resurgence of United States manufacturing, I think we're very happy to work together with the United States.

We are close partners.

At the White House, President Trump was saying that the TSMC investment would allow the leading edge microchips, the most advanced semiconductors, to be made in the United States.

That would be a shift from today when the most advanced microchips are made in Taiwan, on the island of Taiwan.

Is the Taiwanese government prepared to allow the most advanced, the leading edge microchips to be manufactured in the United States?

The need for more chips, especially the more advanced chips with the advent of AI, the need for those chips has increased exponentially.

We can't make it all in Taiwan.

So for manufacturing to be placed where our clients are, the United States mainly, it makes sense.

Also, by being part of the supply chain, Taiwan, U.S., and other friendly countries, we're actually better intertwined, better connected.

So we can turn this shield into our silicon fortress.

From what I know, from TSMC's data, they spend a lot of effort and resources in technological investments to make the newest, most advanced chips as possible.

So we may be getting to the 1.5 nano, the one eventually.

But they start making it in Taiwan.

So once this technology is mature, they'll probably move it elsewhere.

So the newest technology will be first made in Taiwan, and eventually will go to other places, the United States includes.

It sounds like what you're saying is there will still be the most advanced chips will still be from Taiwan, correct?

It will originate and start in Taiwan and eventually be placed elsewhere.

The shield could also be thinning from the U.S.

President Trump, during the election, suggested Taiwan should increase its own national spending.

Is the security relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan as strong as it's ever been?

Or has it changed since Trump came back into power?

We understand our friends' suggestions that Taiwan should spend more and we should increase our burden, our own burden, responsibly to defend ourselves.

And actually, that's what we're doing.

For the last 10 years, our defense spending has almost doubled.

We can spend more and willing to spend more.

President Lai has announced that he will add at least 3% of GDP on defense.

For the last eight years, we spent $26 billion in purchasing weapons, mainly from the United States.

There has been 48 announcements of weapons sell from the United States to Taiwan.

But a good chunk of that budget that we spent, those equipments have not reached Taiwan yet, for many reasons.

Obviously, we appreciate the United States making available these equipments, but it's the speed at which these equipments, which are in stock, can be made available to Taiwan.

And finally, Mr. Representative, I just wanted to ask you about some of the tenor and tone of the conversations we have in Washington about Taiwan.

For instance, we have had an ongoing conversation in public among members of Congress, members of the security community, that should the PRC come over the strait and try to invade, well, would it be better for the U.S. to blow up TSMC and destroy the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing industry, rather than letting it fall into the PRC's hands?

I wonder what you think about those conversations.

If they get their hands on TSMC in Taiwan, in Hsinchu in particular, all they're getting are the machines, and those can be easily replicated.

PRC has spent billions and billions of dollars trying to replicate TSMC in China.

They hired, even hired, TSMC managers, they hired engineers, but they have not been able to do so, and actually, most of these couple of companies that they've invested by the state probably are ruined.

Why?

In my opinion, it's the freedom factor.

It's the human factor that makes TSMC work.

Without Taiwan, TSMC will not work.

It's simple as that.

It's not Taiwan by itself, we may have a shield, but together with other friends, we'll have a fortress.

Fortress Taiwan. I think we can leave it at that, Mr. Representative.

Of course.

Of course.

Thank you so much for sitting down on the Wall Street Journal. Really has been a fantastic conversation.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Appreciate the time.

Thank you.