Hardware Shortages If 'Hot' Conflict Spreads to Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan
"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." -Dwight Eisenhower
AFRICAN leaders publicly complain - and it's nowadays in the mainstream press - that the world, collectively, is not paying any attention (or barely any media coverage is devoted) to bloody wars in Africa. There are 8 conflicts there right now (more than in the Middle East). It seems like "hot" conflicts are imminent in east Asia (CFR's Center for Preventive Action's (CPA) labels 3) and potentially insane leaders in the pipeline can turn tensions into kinetic warfare quite fast.
What does this have to do with "tech", other than technology being used a lot in battlefields (and increasingly so outside the physical battlefields, e.g. in intelligence gathering)? Well, the price of "tech" is likely to soar, more so if countries like South Korea and Taiwan get dragged into war. When Russia invaded Ukraine many people spoke about the impact on grain exports, some obsessed over neon, and no doubt the price of food rose sharply everywhere. Then there's the impact of climate change and factors such as droughts - both of which are connected to human activity (industrial revolution emissions, pesticides that impact soil fertility and so on).
When I got a Taiwanese laptop some days ago I was bearing in mind that a lot of component production happens in Taipei, not only for computers with a Taiwanese brand. Yesterday evening we spoke in IRC about what China might do next; it seems to be preparing to invade. If that happens, or when it happens, except many "supply chain" shortages. Not that demand (consumption) is so high... but all things are relative. █