TSMC - Morris Chang and his devil's choice

TSMC founder Morris Chang raised eyebrows by warmly greeting the Chinese president during a rare face-to-face encounter

Taiwanese billionaire Morris Chang has dismissed speculation that the Taipei government orchestrated his encounter with Xi Jinping at last week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok, saying it was his own idea to warmly greet and congratulate the Chinese president when their paths crossed.

The above is quoted from RT.

Why should this meeting and greeting raised eyebrows? Chang was born in Ningbo, China. He is a Chinese and it is only cordial and polite for a Chinese to greet the President of China. Chang and his TSMC are now the hot potatoes in China US relations. The Americans are uprooting TSMC, lock, stock and barrel to the Arizona desert in the US. Chang has complied so far despite having many factories in China other than Taiwan. 

If the process goes as planned, TSMC would be operating mainly in the US and would possibly be told to cut off 60% of its main business in supplying chips to China. What would be left would be 40% of its main business. Is this a good deal for TSMC? Not forgetting the billions needed to build a completely new plant in Arizona and all the location costs and the higher operating costs in the US.

Without the 60% China business, TSMC would become less than half of its former self.  What is ominous is that it would be fully under the control of the Americans in practically everything it does or intend to do. It's business with China is as good as gone with the wind. It would also be at the mercy of the American companies like Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Intel etc etc. 

Why would Morris Chang go along with this dreadful American proposal that could easily bankrupt TSMC or be taken over or be stolen by the Americans? Would it not be a better option to stay put in Taiwan, save all the relocation costs, be free from the oppression and coercion of the Americans and retain 60% of its business with China? Why is sacrificing 60% of its business a preferred option over losing 40% of its American business?

Staying in Taiwan, retaining 60% of business and staying with the biggest and growing China market and with freedom to do as he pleases without the risk of being acquired or robbed by the Americans must be the rational choice of any business honcho. The choice of moving to the US is looking like digging a hole to bury himself and TSMC. 

Morris Chang is a very experienced businessman and cannot be making such an illogical and losing proposition to squander away his lifelong achievements so willingly. What is the catch?

Moving to the US is a good as moving TSMC to its burial ground for good. TSMC would soon be no more.

NATO member attacking US?

 

Rumour has it that:
'Following the terrorist attack in Ankara which killed 34 people and injured another 125, Turkish authorities first declared that they will not accept US condolences. Then the Turks launched a military operation against “Kurdish terrorists in northern Syria“. Turkey then claimed to have neutralized 184 terrorists.

What is not mentioned in those articles is that the target of the Turkish strike was the US-run center for the training and education of PKK militants in Rojava. There are rumors that the Turks gave the US enough warning time to evacuate most of its personnel.

If the above is true, and rumors are very much “if” and cannot be considered as proven fact, then that means that a NATO member state (Turkey) just attacked a US base and, like Iran, got away with it: the “The Finest Fighting Force in the History of the World” just got whacked hard and humiliated for a second time and could do absolutely nothing to defend itself or even save face.

According to the Turkish defense minister, Hulusi Akar,

'Terrorists’ shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, and warehouses were successfully destroyed,” Akar said, adding that “the so-called headquarters of the terrorist organization were also hit and destroyed.” Overall, the Defense Ministry claimed that the strikes hit nearly 90 targets, which it said were connected to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG).'

So, what do we have here? A NATO member state all but accused the US of a major terrorist attack against its capital city, and then that NATO member state openly attacked a US-run facility (let’s not call it a base, that would be inaccurate).

In other words; being a member of NATO does not protect you from anything, not from external attacks and not against internal ones either.

The phenomenal weakness of the US/NATO/CENTCOM is best illustrated by the US reaction to the Turkish strikes: Uncle Shmuel endorsed (no kidding!!!) the Turkish strikes :-)

How absolutely pathetic is that for a wannabe superpower?

Link to full article: http://thesaker.is/is-nato-falling-apart/

Anonymous 

Singapore going green - is it a good idea?

'We hear a lot about ‘Green’ energy, the ‘Green new deal’, reducing our ‘carbon footprint’ and ‘sustainable development’, policies which are being promoted by a wide range of extremely committed environmental and conservation groups such as the Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Clean Air Council in the US and many international organizations and prominent politicians. ‘Green’ polices have been promoted by US Vice President Kamala Harris, encouraging Americans to purchase [expensive] electric cars and endorsed by the paper of record (NYT) and other corporate media outlets. Any policy that reduces the production of ‘greenhouse’ gasses, such as CO2, is certainly a noble and worthwhile objective, that should be supported. Unfortunately, most of these groups, at least in the US, where I live, are missing the proverbial ‘elephant in the room’. This includes:

1. The entire structure of American society has been built around fossil fuel consumption. This includes the use of automobiles and jet airplanes for transportation. The profits of very powerful corporate interests, including energy corporations, automobile manufactures and their suppliers, banks and insurance companies and law firms to name a few, are highly dependent on fossil fuel consumption and ‘greenhouse’ gas production. They are not about to give this up without a big fight, including going to war.

2. The military is a key pillar of a [declining] American empire, with the Pentagon serving as the ‘enforcer’ of US global power, but is also the largest of consumer of fossil fuels and largest polluter in the world [32]. The Pentagon is supported by all factions of the ruling elite, readily apparent from the near-unanimous bipartisan support for every military appropriation in Congress (appropriation for 2023 is $773 billion). Not surprisingly, most environmental groups, which are dependent on funding from corporate-backed foundations, such as the Ford Foundation, Home Depot Foundation, etc. [50] are not going to ‘bite the hand’ that feeds them. Likewise, US corporate media is controlled by 6 large corporations whose class interests reflect those of the petrochemical companies and other large corporations [51] [52] [53]. Any reporter who steps out of line- i.e., criticizes the functioning of the US empire, including fossil fuel consumption, is immediately reprimanded and/or fired.

The survival of the American Empire is highly dependent on fossil fuel consumption and control of global energy reserves. This dependency has created irresolvable problems and led to a chaotic and at times, contradictory foreign policy.

Fossil fuels still dominate US foreign policy. This can be seen from the enduring presence of military bases throughout the ME and maintaining generous financial support for Israel and the ruling families of Gulf Monarchies [57]. At the same time, these ruling families have watched the US/UK/NATO ferment coups in Iran (1953) [58] [59] and steal resources, invade and/or destroy Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen; impose crippling economic sanctions and/or confiscate the assets of countries deemed a threat to US global power such as Iran, Venezuela and Russia and sabotage energy infrastructure (see below).

Link to article:
http://thesaker.is/the-middle-east-and-us-global-power-fossil-fuel-lifeblood-of-the-american-empire/

Anonymous

Datuk seri Anwar Ibrahim - Why is life so difficult?

 No one in Malaysia has a tougher life than Anwar Ibrahim on the path to premiership. To many ex Malaysia PM, becoming a PM is just a walk in the park, a natural process. Mahathir resigned and came back again like being a PM is nothing. Some were made PM like a gift from God. No need to sweat for it or to fight for it.

Anwar was so close to being PM twice but got played out by Mahathir, even landed up in jail for very vicious crimes that could ruin and break a man. Anwar survived the ordeal and now full of battle scars, and still not yet there. The path to premiership for many is laid with flowers. But for Anwar, it is laid with nails, broken shards, stones, knives or whatever, to make him crawl and bleed for every step he takes. When he gets there, should he get there, he would have nearly bled to death.

Life is really very hard on this DSAI.

Today, with the most votes gained for his coalition PH, at 82 against his closest rival Muhyiddin at 73, he still could not form a govt with another party. BN turned him down. And Muhyiddin appears to be the front runner with GRS and GPS joining him to give him a lead at 102, but still short of the simple majority of 112. Even the King's intervention for a unity coalition with PN was turned down by Muhyiddin.

Now it looks like only Allah can help him to break this spell. Inshyallah, yes, Inshyallah, only a miracle is needed for this truly bright and articulate Malay leader to take the crown of premiership. For the moment, the angst is really painful and draining.

Is is understandable that PN and BN would have bad blood with Anwar to want to work with him. Why would not the parties in Sabah and Sarawak not want to work with Anwar? Between PH, PN and BN, PH and Anwar cannot be that much different, perhaps more desirable in their own ways. Why are GPS and GRS so adamant and not willing to change their position to switch camp?

With their 29 seats and a couple or more seats from UMNO, surely Anwar must have made some friends during his time in UMNO, things could change in Anwar's favour.

Would Anwar make it this time, the really hard way, to be the PM of Malaysia? He has tried so hard, suffered so much, spent his whole life to be the leader of Malaysia. Why would the Malaysians, especially the Malays, not give him a chance in his late years when they could give Mahathir a second chance in his dying years?

An Anwar premiership would really be a huge change in the politics of Malaysia, likely to be for the better. The man had been dragged through not just a pool of mud, but a field of nails. The experience could bring a whole new start with more enlightened policies and direction. Anwar is just like the good son that is being rejected by the rakyat for no good reasons and would be a great loss to Malaysia.

Anwar has not much time left to prove his worth. Mahathir was given too much time to prove his unworth.

Excellent news for Singapore

 The world's population hits 8 billion.  Can you imagine what that means? Singapore now has 8b people to choose from to increase our population with the best of 8b talents. This is creme a la creme. The best of 8b means they must be better than the best of the best of the 3.6m Singaporeans. Singapore can simply replace every Singaporean here, based on meritocracy and talents regardless of citizenship. Wow, Singapore must be salivating and rubbing its hands with glee.

And immediately there are plenty of available talents now retrenched by the tech giants. Twitter itself has a few top executives available. Then there are Meta, Amazon, Shopee,  and what else. There is a mass retrenchment of tech talents going on and all can be heading to Singapore where the door is wide open for such talents. No need to waste money paying head hunting firms to look for such talents. No need 20 years of waiting and expensive education. They are all queuing up over night outside the gate.

When Singapore's 3.6m citizens are replaced by the best talents of the world, what shall we do with the Singaporeans? Where can they go? I think a better idea is to sell Singapore to the top bidder and the money can then be divided among all Singaporeans. With only 3.6m, I think every Singaporean could expect a reasonable sum to retire forever. Some may want to retire in Batam, Bintan and JB. Some can retire in any where they choose with the payout. Just make sure they don't include the PRs and locals or residents to share with the citizens. And got to make this quick before the population explode to 10m, then there will be more heads to share from the pool.

What do you think? No need to become taxi drivers or food deliverers. All becoming crazily rich ex Singaporeans.