- Japan does have the capability of quite easily and quickly replacing all types of tech if necessary, even though doing so would not be commercially viable. But with regards to the expertise and technological knowhow and wherewithal, they do.
- Japan could have all e commerce services and apps.
- South Korea and Taiwan are two small countries with relatively small populations and given the structural nature of the global economy, they have to be highly export oriented to have the high standards of living that they presently have. For that to change, for them to be capable of shifting a much larger share of their exports to domestic consumption than they presently do, they will have to find some way in greatly increasing demand for their products domestically, while at the same time not greatly reducing wages, or having the state take up an even greater burden of the share of costs of services and subsidization of utilities provision than they already do. This can probably happen if we move towards an economy of much lesser scarcity than what exists today. An economy that is fuelled by energy sources that are not only much more abundant that what prevails today, but also MUCH more efficient. There is thorium based nuclear power, for which the technology exists, but if controlled nuclear fusion power is every achieved, which is somewhat probable, then that is even MUCH MUCH better.
- Because of their dependency on the Americans for a number of different things such as a market for their exports; equipment, components, and other items of technology; and also security among major issues, Taiwan and Korea, and to a significantly lesser extent Japan are vulnerable to various forms of sanctions threats that come from the US. With regards to exports issues, it would actually be in their interests to undertake applied research and development in thorium based nuclear power which will lead to significantly greater economic scarcity for them.
With regards to security issues, honestly speaking, South Korea and Japan are capable of looking after themselves, but they still find it convenient to maintain a China guarded posturing to maintain US military forces on their territory. South Korea can develop nuclear weapons of its own to guard itself against the threat of a mercurial North Korea regime. Japan can develop its own nuclear weapons as well.
China, the Koreas, and Japan are all themselves highly mistrustful of one another and have much pride that does not permit them to properly and sincerely cooperate with one another. Perpetuating the status quo is what they are at best all settling for.
- The US may not have ASML's level UV lithographic equipment and lenses, but it can procure the finest quality of such equipment wherever it can be found, because such equipment is possessed by nations that are in various ways friendly to it, aligned to it, or which it would be able to bully to have them give them what they - the US wants. Would ASML dare not sell its finest state of the art lithographic equipment to US firms that meet the asking price. But America can prevent those countries from selling those goods to countries that those other countries have good or even relations with. The Netherlands has no beef with China or Russia, but America would prevent them from selling such equipment to them.
- Nikon and Carl Zeiss: They will sell their state of the art equipment to firms in countries that are all part of the US Alliance system and those which the Americans approve. But they won't sell them to China, because the US does not approve. That's why China should gain the capability of producing EVERY SINGLE ITEM of technology to the highest quality standard. If China does so, it will be assured that other nations cannot prevent it from pursuing its tech goals and ancillary socio economic development that can come with it. And it might even incentivize those other countries to give the US the Middle Finger and sell state of the art tech to China in hopes of capturing a share of the Chinese market, which it will be missing out on, since they know definitely that there will be Chinese suppliers of.
