taiwan is of global strategic importance because of its semiconductor industry
there are only 3 major chip fabs on the planet; one in SK, and 2 in taiwan.
if china invades (they won't) it would be WW3 immediately
The main semiconductor manufacturer is Taiwanese TSMC. ASML Holding, on the other hand, is the world's number one manufacturer of semiconductor printing machines (they have roughly 90-92% of the market. After that there are the Japanese Nikkon and Canon). ASML manufactures extreme ultraviolet printing machines, which are needed to print processors with less than 10 nanometers.
During the military exercises around Taiwan, it was the boss of TSMC who explained that if tomorrow China took a step in Taiwan with the aim of recovering this industry, they would have it in the ass because the machines would be de facto unusable, precisely thanks to ASML which can deactivate them remotely.
By the way, today TSMC is setting up in South Korea but especially in the USA with the latest ASML which engraves in 3 and 2 nanometers.
China wants to get rid if possible of the American tutelage on semiconductors, which are 95% produced between Taiwan (TSMC), South Korea (Samsung) and the US (Intel, Global Foundries, and a few small others).
The semiconductor market is of an unimaginable weight, TSMC slams 40 billion dollars per year in investment in new factories (yes, per year). China's attempts to re-enter/form their own industry are for now a sweet dream. To compare, Russia has had a semiconductor industry for a few years, they print at 180nm. For comparison, it's the finesse of a 2005 Intel Core processor...with the speed that goes with it.
US is ordering European companies to pack up and stop selling to China : ASML, a Dutch company, and Carl Zeiss (another semiconductor printing machines manufacturer), a German one, by threatening their American employees who work in China with stripping them of their American nationality.
If the U.S. is to double-lock any Chinese entry into the market, when objectively it will be a decade or so before they approach (let's not even talk about equaling) American technology, is that they are ready for a war with them.
