Taiwan

On 14 September, ESMC said the Shell of its Dresden fab was complete, 25 months after construction began. The claim came from the company itself, so the schedule still lacks Independent confirmation. For Taiwan, the project keeps its manufacturing capability inside Europe's effort to expand local chip production.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shipped chip-printing equipment from Taiwan to Dresden on 5 June. The plant targets late-2027 volume production at 28nm and 16nm nodes, serving cars and factories rather than leading-edge AI processors. Taiwan's role therefore extends Europe's supply capacity without removing Europe's reliance on Taiwanese industrial expertise.

On 21 August, the USS George Washington relieved the Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, leaving Asia temporarily without a US carrier strike group. Taiwan depends on oil and Liquefied Natural Gas shipments that mostly pass through the strait of Hormuz, so a gap in regional naval cover matters directly to its energy security.

That exposure became tangible on 25 June, when an Iranian drone struck the Taiwanese-operated Ever Lovely in the Hormuz Safe corridor. Its crew escaped injury, but the incident showed that Taiwan-linked shipping could be singled out even within a route presented as protected. Sustained disruption would threaten fuel supply for Taiwan's semiconductor industry.