Tracey Alloway

Oh, interesting.

I want to back way up for a second and ask a very obvious question, which is, why does China actually care so much about Taiwan?

And then is it even accurate to say, like, why does China care about Taiwan?

Should I be asking, why does Xi Jinping care about Taiwan?

I wanna talk more about that, but just on the topic of, I guess, US policy towards China, and you already touched on the one China policy, but what exactly is strategic ambiguity?

Because whenever I hear that term, I always think it's like,

It's what I would do if I was trying to get out of a social commitment later that evening or something like, oh, maybe I'll come.

Maybe, you know, we'll see.

We'll see what happens.

What exactly does that mean?

And isn't it weird that people recognize that as an actual policy strategic ambiguity?

What does it mean?

I wanna ask you more about reshoring, but since we're on the topic of domestic Taiwanese politics, one thing I've always wondered, and I'm curious if you maybe got some color on this in the course of your research, but one of the reasons, it's not the only reason, but a big one, one of the reasons Taiwan is strategically important is because of the semiconductor business and the presence of TSMC and companies like that.

What role does a TMC play in Taiwanese domestic politics?

Like, are there actual instances of like,

semiconductor companies having a seat at the table when it comes to formulating national security policy or indirect influence or anything like that?

Have you seen examples?

In your framework, what's been the big constraint on Xi Jinping so far historically?

Like, why hasn't he done something on Taiwan yet?

So one of the things you used to hear a lot more, and I don't think you hear it nearly as much nowadays, but this idea of economic pain, right?