Biden starts Asia trip with global issues and tech on agenda

Pyeongtaek (South Korea): President Joe Biden on Friday opened his trip to Asia with a focus on the computer chip shortage that has bedeviled the world economy, touring a Samsung computer chip plant that will serve as model for a 17 billion semiconductor factory that the Korean electronics company plans to open in Texas.

The visit Friday is a nod to one of Biden's key domestic priorities of increasing the supply of computer chips. A semiconductor shortage last year hurt the availability of autos, kitchen appliances and other goods, causing higher inflation worldwide and crippling Biden's public approval among U.S. voters.

Biden will grapple with a multitude of foreign policy issues during a five-day visit to South Korea and Japan, but he also crafted an itinerary clearly meant to tend to the concerns of his home audience as well.

Previewing the trip aboard Air Force One, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Samsung's investment in Texas will mean good-paying jobs for Americans and, very importantly, it will mean more supply chain resilience.

Biden said that so much of the future of the world is going to be written here, in the Indo Pacific, over the next several decades. "This is the moment, in my view, to invest in one another to deepen our business ties, to bring our people even closer together."

Biden's message was pitched toward the promise of a better tomorrow, yet it was also targeted at U.S. voters amid political challenges at home, such as inflation driven higher by the chip shortage, as he tries to show how his administration is delivering on economic growth.

Samsung, the chip plant's owner, last November announced plans to open a 17 billion semiconductor factory in Texas. A semiconductor shortage last year hurt the availability of autos, kitchen appliances and other goods, causing higher inflation worldwide and crippling Biden's public approval among U.S. voters.

The president noted that the Texas plant would add 3,000 high-tech jobs and the construction would include union labor. These little chips, Biden said in remarks after he toured the plant, "are the key to propelling us into the next era of humanity's technological

development.