Smart Take | Taiwan Earthquake: A Testament to Resilience Amid Vulnerability

Video Transcript

• Taiwan Earthquake: A Testament to Resilience Amid Vulnerability

  This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

  Taiwan has been hit by its worst earthquake in 25 years but the surprising and hopeful news is that destruction has been fairly limited. Only nine people have died. About a thousand people have been injured. Things could have been much much worse given the magnitude of this devastating earthquake. 

  It is testimony to Taiwan's engineering and Taiwan's preparedness for such devastating natural disasters but we are reminded that Taiwan is indeed very vulnerable to natural disasters as much as it is vulnerable to geopolitical risks.

  So we've just come out of a President Xi of China and President Biden of the United States having a phone conversation and one of the declarations that the Chinese Premier said was that the first red line that must not be crossed is Taiwan. But Taiwan's vulnerabilities are our own vulnerabilities too, for a number of reasons. 

  One of course is that Taiwan is the world's biggest semiconductor manufacturing location in the world. Another issue of course is that had the Taiwanese earthquake been far more disastrous than it had been, it would have required greater international support. However given the unique status of Taiwan not being a sovereign nation.--i would have been difficult and it is difficult for the international community to provide aid to Taiwan given the geopolitical tensions between Taiwan and China.

  So as we look to the consequences of this latest earthquake in Taiwan, we are of course relieved that the devastation had been relatively limited but this also provides an opportunity for us to think yet again about the vulnerabilities that Taiwan faces and that Taiwan's vulnerabilities are actually the vulnerabilities of the world as well.