You do realize that the difference between Intel and TSMC is marginal? Without TSMC your phones and laptops (if you buy the new MacBooks) will run a little hott

You do realize that the difference between Intel and TSMC is marginal? Without TSMC your phones and laptops (if you buy the new MacBooks) will run a little hotter/slower/heavier (to get the same battery life). Sure in a market economy businesses are won on the margins. So in a sense Taiwan is a much greater threat to US chip dominance than China is. If chips are all that you care about you are risking your entire country to protect your true chip nemesis. The more believable your deterrence is, the less likely the industry will come back to the US. Quite a paradox.