Because transporting any large company from location A to location B involves a lot more than just shipping the machinery. TSMC is the tip of the iceberg, the t

Because transporting any large company from location A to location B involves a lot more than just shipping the machinery. TSMC is the tip of the iceberg, the thing you can see jutting out of the waters. We don't see the invisible - but implicit - support structure that makes the company possible. Freakonomics podcast had a couple of episodes on Taiwan some time ago, and one of the points brought forward was that TSMC is a spearhead. In Taiwan, there is more semiconductor industry, and an established education structure able to produce the ongoing stream of skilled workers at every level. These feed into each other, and TSMC is at the apex of the pyramid. To produce an environment where you could transport TSMC to and have it continue to thrive, you'd likely need to first maintain a strategic focus for something like 15 years to build the necessary support structure. I suspect that China is looking at this, but looks at it from another angle. If they invade Taiwan, they will end up disturbing the support structure that makes TSMC, well, TSMC. The edge of Taiwan's semiconductor industry is not that they have TSMC. Their edge is the entire environment that makes TSMC possible in the first place. Or to be really blunt about it: once the CCP believes they can do without Taiwan's semiconductor industry, they'll send in the troops.