Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung has travelled on to Arizona, turning TSMC's US investment into leverage for deepening Taiwan-US relations — good news for industrial cooperation between the two sides.

• Lin Chia-lung has just wrapped up visits to Belize and Guatemala, and will arrive in Phoenix on Friday evening local time.
• His itinerary includes unveiling the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Phoenix, calling on state and city officials, and touring TSMC's Arizona fab.
• Ingrid Larson, Managing Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, is travelling from Washington specifically to accompany him, signalling the importance the US side places on exchanges at the local and industry level.
• Since TSMC announced its Arizona investment in 2020, more than 200 Taiwanese supply-chain companies have set up operations in the United States, and the company's US investment has been scaled up to US$265 billion.
• The new Arizona fab has already turned a profit, with quarterly earnings exceeding its total for all of last year — proof that Taiwan's advanced manufacturing processes can be replicated overseas.

Outlook: Taiwan's diplomatic services are extending from traditional overseas-community affairs into cooperation with industry and local governments, as the focus of Taiwan-US exchanges continues to shift down to the state government and corporate level.