Taipei is trying to turn a tariff fight into a tech pact. After fresh talks in Washington, Taiwan’s lead negotiator says both sides are exploring a “high-tech strategic partnership” that would trade more Taiwanese investment on U.S. soil for lower duties on Taiwan’s exports now facing a 20% tariff.

The pitch is a “Taiwan model”: keep core manufacturing, R&D and supplier ecosystems rooted at home, while extending U.S. capacity where it serves American demand. Think satellites of existing fabs and cluster partnerships, not wholesale relocation. The toolkit would be industrial planning plus government backstops like export-credit guarantees, and joint development of U.S. industrial parks to co-locate foundries, packaging, materials and tool vendors.

China just switched on something it has been telegraphing for years: a coal-to-chemicals complex that splices “green” hydrogen into the heart of its syngas flows. Datang’s Duolun project in Inner Mongolia is now in commercial operation, backed by a co-located 150-megawatt wind and solar array that can either feed the grid or run electrolyzers to make hydrogen.

The site is billed as a national demonstration, and that label matters. Beijing wants to prove that a sector long criticized for emissions, turning coal into synthesis gas and then into ammonia, methanol, and olefins, can be tweaked, not shuttered, by dialing up the hydrogen content with renewables rather than only coal-derived gas.

The US solar industry is facing a potential trade probe as seven panel makers and polysilicon producers filed petitions seeking duties on $12.5 billion worth of imported equipment from Southeast Asia. The move, if successful, could lead to tariffs as high as 271.5% later this year, impacting the cost of solar projects…