Artificial general intelligence is coming. Previous estimates suggested it was 5-15 years away. Current estimates suggest it could happen in the next 2-3 years.
No ones knows which country will arrive at AGI first. No one knows what it will do to the world. It will undoubtedly be used for military purposes. Think of an AGI tasked to “protect us from the enemy”. What human would be able to stop that? AGI will be able to write its own code, which will then further write more code. It will be able to conduct cyberoperations in a manner no human can currently imagine.
Given Taiwan’s leading position in semi-conductor technology, it would seem sensible for Taiwan to attempt to be the first to achieve AGI, which will give them first-mover advantage. Given the possible speed of AI advancements, it’s entirely possible first-mover advantage would be decisive in a confrontation with China. Perhaps Taiwan-AGI could be tasked with “controlling the Chinese stock market.” Or power grid. Or nuclear arsenal. Again, can the current human-created infrastructure resist such a takeover? I personally wouldn’t bet on it.
So the method to secure Taiwanese sovereignty is to win the AI race.