China is 10 years into what you describe, no?

Yes. And then taking down TSMC will be a nuclear bomb that wipes everyone else’s economy at once.

> the way our system operates

They have the other system.

This bit, I mean:

> A wealthy nation-state with a sufficiently motivated voter base could certainly build up a meaningful competitor to TSMC over the course of, say, a decade or two (or three...).