Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport making fast recovery from pandemic restrictions

The world's eyes are on Taiwan, which remains the next potential global flashpoint.

It only takes one US politician to visit the country, or for a Taiwanese one to visit the US and meet with politicians to set up Chinese military exercises, and the chance of a miscalculation being made that could lead directly to conflict involving superpowers is high.

Behind the scenes the Taiwanese, who have had to live with the threat for many years, are quietly getting back to business. Many COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have been lifted, and tourists may now visit the country - albeit with limitations on initial movements.

The main airport, Taiwan Taoyuan International, reports a dramatic increase in passengers in 1Q2023 and expects between 20 and 28 million in FY2023, although that differential does hint at lingering uncertainty as to how matters will progress, and even the higher figure is still 20 million short of the 2019 figure.

Many factors will influence the airport's progress this year and beyond. One of them is the fact that Taiwan accounts for 60% of the global production of semiconductors and over 90% of the most advanced ones. They account for 15% of GDP. Already there are signs that manufacture is starting to shift abroad, mainly to the US, in anticipation of conflict.