The US is turning the screws on its partners to help restrain China’s technological and military rise. The FT reported this week that Washington is pushing Taiwan to restrict its biggest semiconductor maker, TSMC, from selling chips to Huawei and tighten controls on other technology exports to China. US security concerns are legitimate. Yet China is far more interconnected, economically and technologically, with the US and the rest of the world than, say, the Soviet Union was during the cold war. That makes it more difficult to install effective export controls that do not hold back US industry.

The pressure on Taiwan is an indication that, despite encouraging signs of progress towards a US-China trade agreement, the White House’s ambitions stretch much further. Hawks in the administration want to rip up supply chains to slow China’s technological progress, especially in the military sphere. It is a sign, too, of how third countries, especially in Asia, are caught in the crossfire — and that they may be forced to choose sides even if the two reach a trade deal.

While the US appears to recognise that Taiwan is unlikely to rein in TSMC ahead of presidential elections there in January, it believes additional controls on semiconductor sales to China should follow. Yet Washington may struggle to strong-arm Taipei. The US argues Taiwan should not provide technology that could strengthen a Chinese military that directly threatens it. American concerns are mounting over Chinese president Xi Jinping’s ambitions towards the island.