The soldiers of the silicon supply chain are worried

There is a wry sense of seen-it-all-before in the crucible of the world’s semiconductor industry. When your columnist took the bullet train to Hsinchu Science Park, home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s biggest chip producer, on May 24th, China was simulating a military encirclement of Taiwan in waters not far over the horizon. An invasion would be cataclysmic. A blockade could starve the island of vital energy resources. Even cyber-attacks could be crippling. Yet after decades of belligerence, many Taiwanese greet such threats with a shrug. “It’s nothing new to me,” chuckles one seasoned chip executive. “Since 1996 China has been throwing missiles.”