Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: The United States has announced new export restrictions targeting China’s ability to make advanced semiconductors, drawing swift condemnation from Beijing, according to a report by Guardian staff and agencies.
Washington is expanding efforts to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China that can be used in advanced weapons systems and in artificial intelligence, it said. The announcement on December 2 came a few weeks before Donald Trump returns as President, where he is expected to bolster Washington’s hawkish stance on China, according to the Guardian report.
A day earlier, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Joe Biden’s presidency had been especially tough in “strategically addressing China’s military modernisation through export controls”.
Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said: “The United States has taken significant steps to protect our technology from being used by our adversaries in ways that threaten our national security.” Washington would keep working with allies and partners “to proactively and aggressively safeguard our worldleading technologies and knowhow so they aren’t used to undermine our national security,” he said.
Beijing vowed to defend its interests, with a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson saying the US “abuses export control measures” and has “hindered normal economic and trade exchanges”.
The latest US rules include a restriction of sales to 140 companies, including Chinese chip firms Piotech and SiCarrier, without additional permission. They also impact Naura Technology Group, which makes chip production equipment. Others include entities in Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
The new US rules also include controls on two dozen types of chip-making equipment and three kinds of software tools for developing or producing semiconductors. “We are constantly talking to our allies and partners as well as reassessing and updating our controls,” said Alan Estevez, Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security.
The Netherlands-based computer chip equipment maker ASML – which, according to Guardian report, is the only manufacturer of the most cutting edge chip-making machines – said it did not expect the new US restrictions to affect its most recent financial guidance.
