Guy who works in Hi-Tech here.
If you try to fight a short but vicious war against China...you will lose.
China has and is making a concerted effort to take over US high tech hardware production. It is winning. Right now a lot of IC fabs are located overseas and almost all of the IC packaging houses are. We literally do not have the production capacity to produce a lot of the semi-conductors, magnetics, capacitors, display elements, etc. that are needed for a war. Most of the production house are located in Asia. China is in a position to halt the export of all of those items.
In rare earth metals, China has 94% plus of the worlds production locked up, because of cost. Yes there are significant deposits of the 17 rare earth metals in the west, but the last foundry to process them in the US was closed in the early 2000’s. Without those material you cannot make a whole host of high tech items.
Bismarck had another great quote “The issues of this age will not be settled in the fashionable salons of Europe but with iron and blood.”
Today that should be silicon, iron and blood.
We now lack the silicon side. Yes we have lots of high tech software types, but in the making side of things we are declining at a very fast rate. I have been in the business for 30 years (first design accepted into a product in 1986)and I am by no means the old man in my field, a situation I find shocking. When I started in the 1980s there were lots of young engineers and many production houses in the are I live in, most are now gone shoved overseas. In my company, which is one of the major players in high tech communications, the age of the hard ware engineers range from 43 to 65. No young guys, engineering is being shifted over to Asia because the cost advantage.
We need trump, we need a 6trade ware if necessary or we are going to be Brazil in about 10 years.
Having just retired from 45 years in “Hi-tech”, let me add some perspective.
The foundry issue you describe is a function of the regulation and taxation issues I previously addressed. I tried forcing this issue with regard to ASICs and FPGAs a dozen years ago.
Its also a policy and priority issue, as is the consequence of any engagement with China.
The notion that any encounter with China automatically escalates to WWIII, as others pretend, is nonsense.
This administration cares little about National Defense, so preparedness and capacity has not only been neglected, but undermined.
The experienced engineers and managers who would train the young engineers are being pushed out, both to contain cost and further Obama’s goal of a weaker America.
Trump needs:
John Bolton
Mike Flynn
Newt Gingrich
Rudy Giuliani
Art Laffer
Tom Cotton
a solid working relationship w Paul Ryan
Charles Payne
But we DO have the ability to take their manufacturing OUT!