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.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
DANGEROUS DRIVERS: The proposal follows a fatal incident on Monday involving a 78-year-old driver, which killed three people and injured 12 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said it would lower the age for elderly drivers to renew their license from 75 to 70 as part of efforts to address safety issues caused by senior motorists. The new policy was proposed in light of a deadly incident on Monday in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽), in which a 78-year-old motorist surnamed Yu (余) sped through a school zone, killing three people and injuring 12. Last night, another driver sped down a street in Tainan’s Yuching District (玉井), killing one pedestrian and injuring two. The incidents have sparked public discussion over whether seniors