Semiconductor chips are electronic devices that store and process information. Today they can contain billions of microscopic switches on a chip smaller than a fingernail.
While Chinese American voters are not a homogeneous group, many people who have ancestral ties to the region are unlikely to question their support for Nancy Pelosi just because of her Taiwan trip.
The US speak of the house’s visit to Taiwan has provoked more sabre-rattling from China, but neither China nor the US will want tensions to escalate further.
Not everyone is so thrilled by the visit.
AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying
Meredith Oyen, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
The White House has distanced itself from the US House speaker’s potential visit to Taiwan. But does it still signal a shift in policy over diplomatic ties with the island?
China’s president Xi Jingping has brokered numerous relationships with African nations during his years in office.
Yao Dawei/Xinhua/Alamy Live News
Hugh White warns of a potential war between the US and China, drawing lessons from the first and second world wars to explore how Australia might respond to such a conflict – and where to draw a line.
Farmers drive sprinkler irrigation machines in a wheat field in East China’s Jiangsu province.
Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Meredith Oyen, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Biden’s suggestion that the US is prepared to intervene militarily if Taiwan was invaded was quickly walked back by White House officials.
High-level diplomacy: representatives of the US and UK on the UN Security Council talk with Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya.
EPA-EFE/Jason Szenes