Lin, Wen-i; Chang, Jung-Ying; Datta, Ayona; (2025) Taiwan’s ‘Silicon Shield’: Techno-authoritarian territories in the global semiconductor supply chain. Dialogues on Digital Society (In press).

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Abstract

This commentary analyses a mode of ‘techno-authoritarianism’ emerging in the space between Taiwan’s geopolitical position as a leading AI infrastructure giant, rising US authoritarianism and potential Chinese aggression in the future. We argue that Taiwan’s ‘Silicon Shield’ produces technoauthoritarian territories of deep surveillance in its science parks which are seen as national assets for countering Chinese aggression and for saving Taiwan’s sovereignty. Techno-authoritarianism also emanates outside its sovereign territory with extension of techno-statecraft from both China and the US seeking to sabotage or instrumentalise Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. Ultimately Taiwan’s ‘Silicon Shield’ is not a defense mechanism, it is also the site of diffuse and networked forms of geopolitical surveillance of Taiwanese territory from inside and outside.

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