Governor DeSantis to invest in microchip, semiconductor manufacturing in effort to combat China

On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced he would invest the state’s funds to increase microchip and semiconductor manufacturing in Florida to ensure that China could not “hold our supply chain hostage.”

“We have to start standing up as Floridians and Americans,” DeSantis said at a press conference. “We cannot be captive. Key sectors of our economy should not be captive to some of these foreign nations, particularly outfits like the Communist Party of China. And then even when you have allies like Taiwan, how that could impact, if there was a disruption there, could throw a lot of this through the loop even more than we’ve seen over the past year and a half.”

He continued: “So the more we have this capacity within our own country but particularly within our own state here in Florida, the more opportunities there’s going to be for people and the more secure both our economic supply chains will be and our national security.”

On December 20, DeSantis announced his plan to confront China, stating in a press release he would “conduct a survey of all of the investments of the Florida Retirement System to determine how many assets the state has in Chinese companies.”

“If you look at how these major companies behave when faced with Chinese disapproval, they censor what the CCP tells them to censor and we see groveling apologies,” DeSantis fired.

“Go back a generation, and the idea of the American elites was, ‘If we allow China into the WTO and give them most favored nation status, that will make China more like us.’ This experiment has failed and it has endangered our nation’s national and economic security.”

“I would like the SBA to survey the investments that are currently being done,” he continued. “When the legislature comes back, they can make statutory changes to say that the Communist Party of China is not a vehicle that we want to be entangled with. I think that that would be something that would be very, very prudent. I also think that our country as a whole but certainly Florida would like to see more production and manufacturing re-shored and we would be a great place to do that.”

The release noted, “The actions taken today will further strengthen Florida’s fiscal footing and signal to those in corporate America who prop up a genocidal, authoritarian, imperialist regime that they will not do so with Floridians’ money.”

“I appreciate Governor DeSantis’ asserting our seat at the table when it comes to how SBA, and its fund managers, decide on investments,” Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis stated.

“A sad reality is that too many federal leaders for too long have been missing-in-action when it has come to holding China accountable. As Americans got our cheap goods, the Chinese government wasn’t playing by the rules when it came to intellectual property or trade. Meanwhile, they’ve been busy buying influence in Hollywood and Washington. Unfortunately, between COVID and the supply chain issues, we’ve seen how reliant our country has become on China.”