The second in a three-part series, Taiwan in the Crosshairs examines how the island and its nearly 24 million people are holding up under pressure from Beijing’s stepped-up diplomatic and military intimidation campaign.
HSINCHU, Taiwan — Hulking white factory buildings tower over the plush vegetation lining the road that snakes through this city, a place long known as Taiwan’s “Silicon Valley,” but increasingly identified as ground zero in a widening new Cold War between the United States and China.
More than 400 of Taiwan’s highest-level private tech firms are located in Hsinchu and several of America’s most iconic and influential brands — including Apple, Intel, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin — are either deeply invested in and or heavily reliant on the advanced microchips made here.