China yesterday announced tax breaks to spur growth of its semiconductor industry following US sanctions that alarmed the Chinese Communist Party by cutting off access to US processor chips for tech giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and some other companies.
Leaders declared accelerating efforts to transform China into a self-reliant “technology power” to be this year’s top economic priority after the tariff dispute with Washington highlighted its reliance on US components for smartphones and other industries Beijing wants to develop.
Chipmakers can import machinery and raw materials tax-free through 2030, the Chinese ministry of Finance and other agencies announced.
Photo: AP
It did not say how large a subsidy to manufacturers that might represent.
Beijing has spent heavily over the past two decades to build up a Chinese chip industry, but its makers of smartphones and other technology still rely on Taiwan, Europe and the US for their most advanced components.
Then-US president Donald Trump cut off Huawei’s access to US processor chips and other technology in 2019 in a fight over Beijing’s industrial ambitions.
Last year, Trump tightened curbs by prohibiting global suppliers from using US technology to make chips for Huawei. That threatens to cripple the firm’s smartphone business, which was the No. 1 global seller early last year, but has dropped out of the top five brands.
Political analysts expect little change in position under US President Joe Biden.
Huawei founder and chief executive officer Ren Zhengfei (任正非) said in February that it is “very unlikely” sanctions will be lifted.
Processor chips and other semiconductors are China’s biggest single import, totaling more than US$300 billion a year.
Under the latest measure, machinery and raw materials “that cannot be produced or whose performance cannot meet demand” would be exempt from import tax, the government said.
That applies to photoresists, masks, polishing pads and liquids, silicon crystals and wafers, materials to build clean rooms and other production equipment, it said.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
RSS