Perhaps some ideology makes you ignore the otherwise obvious similarities between the peoples of Taiwan and Japan - including but not limited to intelligence, work culture and education - but to me, Taiwan and "some EU country" seem to be a world apart.
I don't think they were talking about the people, but the geography. The Taiwan and Japan are both physically close to China. Taiwan is 125 miles away. Japan is 500+ miles away. Germany is 5,500 miles away.
There are select EU nations that fit that bill. I'd be more suspect of the fact that the EU's political future (not existence, but future) is more uncertain than is communicated to the public. East-West political instability would be a concern in terms of ip control and espionage, at minimum. For more context, historically Europe is a powder keg.
imo Switzerland/Germany could be a good fit too(tsmc will open a fab but for bigger nm so I was wondering why not open another fab but for smaller nm, but maybe you are right- timezone sync can play a big factor)
