Taipei does not feel like a city on the brink of war.
People rush to work. Students line up for bubble tea. The metro is spotless and efficient. Night markets are loud and full. If you didn’t know the headlines, you wouldn’t guess that just 130 kilometers away across the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese military is rehearsing how to take this island by force.
That contrast is what struck me most. I came to Taiwan to understand why this small island matters so much, and why both China and the United States are investing so much political and military capital in its future. The answer becomes clear very quickly: geography, microchips, and identity.
The Map Explains Everything
Stand on Taiwan’s northern coast and look west. Across the fog lies mainland China. The Taiwan Strait is only about 130 km wide at its narrowest point. For a fighter jet, that’s minutes. For missiles, seconds.
Taiwan sits in the middle of what American strategists call the First Island Chain, a string of territories from Japan down to the Philippines that effectively limits China’s naval access to the wider Pacific. As long as Taiwan is not controlled by Beijing, China’s navy is constrained. If Taiwan were to fall, that changes overnight. Chinese submarines and aircraft carriers would have far easier access to the open ocean. Japan and the Philippines would feel the pressure immediately. The regional balance would shift.
Beijing is not hiding its intentions. The People’s Liberation Army regularly conducts drills around the island, practicing blockades, missile strikes, amphibious landings. Chinese jets now routinely cross the median line in the Taiwan Strait, something that was largely avoided for decades. The message is clear: reunification is not a distant dream. It is an objective. And yet, one crucial fact remains: the Chinese Communist Party has never governed Taiwan. Not once.
The Company That Powers the World
But geography is only part of the story. Taiwan is home to TSMC, the most important semiconductor manufacturer on the planet. It produces the vast majority of the world’s most advanced logic chips. The ones inside your phone. Your laptop. Your car. AI systems. Satellites. Advanced weapons systems. Without these chips, modern economies don’t just slow down, they seize up.
China relies on them. The West relies on them. Everyone relies on them. This is why Taiwan is sometimes called the “silicon shield.” Its importance to the global economy creates a strange form of protection but also a massive strategic incentive. From Beijing’s perspective, depending on a self-governing democracy for critical technology is a vulnerability. From Washington’s perspective, allowing the CCP to control that supply would be unacceptable. Either way, the stakes are enormous.
Democracy and a Different Identity
There is also something deeper happening here. Beijing frames Taiwan through the narrative of the “Century of Humiliation,” when China was weakened and carved up by foreign powers. Taiwan, ceded to Japan in 1895, is presented as one of the territories that must be “restored.” But modern Taiwan is not simply a historical footnote.
After 1949, when Mao’s communists took control of the mainland, the nationalist government fled to Taiwan. Over time, Taiwan evolved into one of Asia’s strongest democracies. Free elections. Independent media. Civil liberties. Today, most people here identify as Taiwanese, not Chinese. That matters.
Taiwan stands as proof that a Chinese-speaking society can be prosperous, modern, and democratic. It challenges the idea that authoritarian rule is culturally inevitable. For Beijing, Taiwan is unfinished business. For many Taiwanese, Beijing represents a system they do not want. The example of Hong Kong is never far from people’s minds.
Why Washington Is Watching
The United States maintains what it calls “strategic ambiguity.” It does not formally promise to defend Taiwan, but it does not rule it out either. At the same time, it strengthens alliances in the region, expands military cooperation with the Philippines and Japan, and continues supplying Taiwan with defensive weapons. For Washington, Taiwan is not just about one island. It is about credibility, alliances, and whether the balance of power in Asia tilts decisively toward Beijing.
Taipei does not feel panicked. It feels determined. Life continues. Businesses operate. Elections are fiercely contested. The debate here is not whether to surrender, it is how best to preserve peace without sacrificing freedom. Taiwan may be small. But its future will shape far more than its own borders. And after 24 hours here, one thing is clear: this is not a distant issue. It is one of the defining geopolitical questions of our time.
Stefan Tompson
Founder | Visegrad24
