America’s overwhelming reliance on microchip manufacturing in southeast Asia is an increasing economic and security weakness. China’s flybys into Taiwanese airspace in recent days are just the latest reminder. If the U.S. doesn’t ramp up domestic capacity, a China-Taiwan scuffle could block our most important technology companies from access to their most important components.
A provision of the latest National Defense Authorization Act, passed in December, could be one facet of a solution. It hopes to boost domestic production with direct support for leading-edge chip manufacturing. …
