Chip Age & Digital Governance:

 Geopolitics, National Strategies, &
Capital Manipulation

The upcoming Transit Asia Research Network (TARN) activities will focus on the joint project “Chip Age and Digital Governance: Geopolitics, National Strategies, and Capital Manipulation” (2025–2028), organised by network members and external scholars . This interdisciplinary project, led by scholars from the humanities and social sciences, examines transformations in the global political economy driven by the semiconductor industry, digital governance, and geopolitical tensions. The project includes case studies from Asia, Europe, and Africa. It addresses four key themes: shifts in governmentality, national strategies regarding digital infrastructure, security governance, and labour migration.

The escalating “Chip War” reflects not only the technological competition and new Cold War tensions between the U.S. and China but also reveals transformations in global capital accumulation patterns and the world political economy. In the 21st century, corporate-driven capital operations are evident in the control over the supply chains of raw materials and production in the high-tech industry, as well as in the dominance of technological monopolies and standard-setting. The production of high-tech goods and digital governance models have facilitated the formation of various policies, institutions, laws, and ideologies. Alongside corporate-driven capital accumulation, this has led to the plunder of rare metal resources, geopolitical control over supply chains and production, and varied impacts on different societies. In addition to the conveniences offered by digital technologies in various aspects of life and the rapid connections provided by social trading platforms, the development of the high-tech industry has also altered labor migration pathways and modes of labor exploitation, leading to changes in labor supply chains and the emergence of centralized governance models such as digital tracking and surveillance. Changes in material conditions and technological advancements have further propelled significant shifts in geopolitical oppositions.

The “Chip War” specifically reveals the shifts in international political dynamics resulting from China’s rise in the 21st century. In just twenty years, we have witnessed China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has stimulated a new spatial order competition across Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America, moving from the land Silk Road to the maritime and digital Silk Roads. The ongoing tensions in the Taiwan Strait persist, and in the current Chip War, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry occupies a crucial and sensitive geopolitical position. Taiwan’s TSMC is one of the largest semiconductor foundries globally, providing advanced chips for Apple, Nvidia, and AMD, making it an indispensable part of the semiconductor supply chain. TSMC has established factories in the U.S., China, Japan, and Germany, while China has declared its intention to independently develop chips by 2025 without being constrained by U.S. technological monopolies and blockades.

Semiconductor technology plays a critical role in all modern foundational industries, making the stability of chip production and supply chains key to a nation’s economic autonomy and security. As a material foundation and infrastructure, chips perform various functions, including algorithms, computing, design, differentiation, document processing, memory, execution, and automation. More importantly, semiconductor technology is rapidly replacing traditional warfare models in various military systems and national security, enabling not only drone operations, cyberattacks, and infrastructure assaults but also the plunder of rare metal resources, digital technology blockades and sanctions, digital currency monopolies, automated warfare, information warfare, data weaponization, and monopolies in 5G technology. On this material foundation, the semiconductor industry not only receives state support but also has an active demand from the state, driving the growth of the industry.

1. The questions this research group will consider are:
How does the chip geopolitics of the 21st century stimulate strategic deployments in the current new Cold War?

2. How does the digital automation driven by the chip industry accelerate capital expansion and operational automation, reshaping the logistics and infrastructure of production-supply chains?

3. How does digital technology permeate various aspects of our lives, giving rise to new forms of governance techniques, changing labor patterns, and shaping new forms of labor exploitation?

4. What responses and interventions can societies around the world implement in light of the developments driven by the chip digital industry?

We have established the “Chip Era and Digital Governance” research group at our center. We have also invited international scholars from TARN, who have long collaborated with the International Center for Cultural Studies at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. These scholars come from a diverse range of countries, including India, Australia, Germany, Poland, Italy, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Together, we will explore the structural changes in the world political economy resulting from China’s rise and the impact of the digital industry in the 21st century. Our work will involve both theoretical discussions and empirical research across different societies.