The ongoing hi-tech trade war between the USA and China escalated significantly last week when the USA increased its sanctions against Huawei. In a move which had been long-threatened, but which many supply chain players hoped would never happen, the US government barred any company using US technology to make semiconductors, from supplying Huawei. This led TSMC of Taiwan, the world’s largest chip foundry, to suspend sales to Huawei, its second largest customer (after Apple). That puts the Chinese firm in a very bad position – it sources an estimated 90% of its most advanced mobile device and network chips from TSMC, and no Chinese manufacturer has the capability to make these instead. But it also deprives TSMC of a…