The US government has imposed new restrictions on Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) ability to use US technology, stepping up a conflict with China over industry development and security, with Beijing urging Washington to stop “unreasonable suppression” of Chinese firms.
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Friday said that Washington wants to prevent Huawei from evading sanctions imposed earlier on its use of US technology to design and produce semiconductors abroad.
“There has been a very highly technical loophole through which Huawei has been able to in effect use US technology,” Ross told Fox Business. “We never intended that loophole to be there.”
Photo: AFP
Huawei, China’s first global tech brand and a maker of networking equipment and smartphones, is at the center of the US-Chinese conflict over Beijing’s technology ambitions.
US officials have said that Huawei is a security risk, which the company has denied.
China’s government has accused Washington of misusing security warnings to harm a rising competitor to US technology companies.
Under the new rules, foreign semiconductor makers must obtain a US license to ship Huawei-designed semiconductors to the Chinese company that were produced using US technology.
The move “looks like a victory for the people who really want to drive the nail, or what they think will be the nail, in Huawei’s coffin,” Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Adam Segal said.
China threatened retaliation against US companies.
Chip design and manufacturing equipment used in the world’s semiconductor plants is mostly US-made, so the new rule affects foreign producers that sell to Huawei and affiliates including HiSilicon Technologies Co (海思半導體), which makes chips for supercomputers with scientific and military uses.
The US Department of Commerce said that foreign foundries would be granted a 120-day grace period for chips already in production.
Huawei did not respond to a request for comment, but China’s state-run Global Times on Friday threatened countermeasures.
Beijing could include restrictions on US companies including Qualcomm, Cisco and Apple, as well as threaten to suspend purchases of Boeing aircraft, it said.
The new rules would block companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from providing semiconductors to Huawei.
TSMC said that it was “following the US export rule change closely.”
The semiconductor supply chain is “extremely complex,” TSMC said, adding that it was working with lawyers to “conduct legal analysis and ensure a comprehensive examination and interpretation of these rules.”
TSMC on Friday announced plans to build a chip plant in Arizona.
The Global Times said that “it seems the US is ratcheting up efforts to pinch China’s high-tech companies,” calling the move an element of US President Donald Trump’s re-election strategy.
“US suppression has become the No. 1 challenge to China’s development,” it added.
Yesterday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that “the Chinese government will firmly uphold Chinese firms’ legitimate and legal rights and interests.”
“We urge the US side to immediately stop its unreasonable suppression of Huawei and Chinese enterprises,” it said.
The Trump administration’s actions “destroy global manufacturing, supply and value chains,” it added.
Last year, the Trump administration barred US firms from using Huawei technology or providing technology to the Chinese firm without government approval, deeming it a national security risk.
The department exempted a narrow list of products and services, and has extended that waiver to reduce the impact on US wireless carriers that use Huawei technology. This week, it added another 90 days.
Huawei responded by removing US components from its core products.
The new restrictions are separate from those exemptions, but loopholes have allowed US companies to supply Huawei with chips made outside of the US.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS