A U.S. National Semiconductor Strategy Must Include Export Controls

Between the chip shortages that have plagued countries around the world during the pandemic, China’s designs on conquering Taiwan (where 90% of the world’s most advanced chips are produced), and the CHIPS Act being developed in the U.S. Congress, both policymakers and ordinary citizens alike are putting a new focus on ensuring a stable supply of semiconductors. Two new think tank papers raise the idea of national semiconductor strategies. The first, from the UK’s Policy Exchange, is ambivalent on the need for a UK national strategy, noting that “the UK semiconductor industry is part of a globally interdependent production system in which no country, even one as large as the US, can hope to be self-sufficient.” Nonetheless, the Policy Exchange… Read More