America wants the export of chips and related goods and technology to China to be further restricted. The Financial Times reports this based on insiders. The US is said to have urged the Netherlands, Japan and South Korea to do this. Under American pressure, these allies had already significantly curtailed the export of high-quality chip technology to China, but apparently that is not working sufficiently, says China expert and advisor John Lin.
‘US wants the Netherlands and other allies to further restrict Chinese chip exports’
3 min 48 sec
According to the British newspaper, Washington has increased pressure over concerns about the development of advanced chips by the Chinese tech group Huawei. One of these chips was built into a smartphone that appeared last year, the Mate 60 Pro.
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Last year, the Dutch government announced that it would further restrict the export of chip machines from ASML to China. The most advanced equipment of the Veldhoven company was already not allowed to go to the Asian country. Additional restrictions were added for the sale of certain types of the second-latest generation of chip machines.
China can still do a lot with these machines, concludes Lin, who is also on the board of the Netherlands China Business Council. “We thought it wasn’t possible, but apparently it is.”
On the brakes
That worries the US, says Lin. ‘America is afraid of losing its lead. They are doing everything they can to slow down China. Every time they impose a new restriction, China surprises them again with the fact that they can apparently still arrange things.’
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So the US is trying to hit the brakes again. However, the options that America and its allies still have for this are limited, says Lin. ‘You can still stop ASML’s old devices. ASML also still has maintenance contracts with China for those old machines, so you can also pull the plug at some point.
Own industry
China is now investing hundreds of billions in its own chip industry. According to Lin, it is a matter of time before China no longer needs the chips from abroad. ‘China wants its own semiconductor industry, because they also see that they are too dependent on America. China is big enough, there are enough smart people studying there to make it expensive and, just like America, they invest a huge amount of money.’
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