US President Joe Biden is planning to sign an executive order to limit critical US technology investments in China by the middle of next month, according to people familiar with the internal deliberations.
The order focuses on semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. It would not affect any existing investments and would only prohibit certain transactions. Other deals would have to be disclosed to the government.
The timing for the order, slated for the second week of next month, has slipped many times before, and there is no guarantee it would not be delayed again, but internal discussions have already shifted from the substance of the measures to rolling out the order and accompanying rule, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Photo: AFP
The restrictions would not take effect until next year, and their scope would be laid out in a rulemaking process, involving a comment period so stakeholders can weigh in on the final version.
A spokeswoman for the National Security Council declined to comment.
The investment controls are part of a broader White House effort to limit China’s capabilities to develop the next-generation technologies expected to dominate national and economic security. The effort has complicated the Biden administration’s already fraught relations with China, which sees the restrictions as an effort to contain and isolate the country.
China’s envoy in Washington said earlier this month that Beijing would retaliate if the US imposes new limits on technology or capital flows but did not detail what actions the country could take.
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen has sought to calm Chinese anger over the curbs, saying they would not significantly damage the ability to attract US investment and were narrowly tailored.
“These would not be broad controls that would affect US investment broadly in China, or in my opinion, have a fundamental impact on affecting the investment climate for China,” Yellen said in an interview with Bloomberg Television earlier this month.
Yellen emphasized the restrictions as well as existing export controls were not in retaliation for any specific actions from China or intended to curtail its growth.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan first publicly discussed the concept in July 2021. China hawks in the US are eager for tougher and faster action. Lawmakers from both parties have also shown interest in legislating on the matter, although a bill has not yet made it to Biden’s desk.
The Senate last week passed an amendment to the national defense policy bill that would require firms to notify the government about certain investments in China and other countries of concern, although they would not be subject to review or possible prohibition.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li