Monthly Review | What Do We Learn about Capitalism from Chip War?
Monthly Review | What Do We Learn about Capitalism from Chip War?
Chip War (Simon and Schuster, 2022) by Chris Miller is a detailed accounting of the U.S. efforts to retain control of the computer chip industry—an industry that has become vital to nearly all aspects…
The logic of monopoly capital and imperialism as it operates in the global semiconductor business.
Some key takeaways:
"The great contradiction that they face is the fact that for every major chip firm, the Chinese semiconductor industry also constitutes a huge market, often a bigger customer than any other. Hence, Washington and the U.S. chip industry are caught between trying to limit the Chinese industry and maintaining trade relations."
And not surprisingly
"U.S. strategists have been earnestly arguing for a scorched earth policy in Taiwan, meaning that the United States should seriously consider destroying TSMC plants in case of a credible threat from China, in order to prevent the Chinese from wresting control over production"