The US Commerce Department on Monday introduced a sweeping package of export controls to weaken China's domestic semiconductor ecosystem and weaken the country's manufacturing capacity. advanced chips At local level. The new rules block China from accessing 24 types of chip manufacturing equipment and three software programs, and ban the sale to China of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, an advanced type of 3D-stacked computer memory component whose Is used frequently. Customized AI chips.
“They are the strongest controls the US has ever enacted to reduce the PRC's ability to make the most advanced chips used in its military modernization,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. These measures are likely to anger Beijing, which has given tens of billions of dollars Subsidies and tax breaks to semiconductor firms hoping to build their own chips sector.
Over the past decade, the United States has become increasingly concerned that China could use cutting-edge computer chips to create AI-powered military weapons or other technology that threatens the US and its allies. To address this issue, the Biden administration has concentrated Its efforts to prevent China from acquiring high-end semiconductors made by companies such as Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC).
But China proved it was capable of making high-end chips on its own, so the US turned its attention to components and equipment made by Chinese companies like Huawei. still trust To produce our own domestic silicone. The measures announced today are the most far-reaching part of that strategy yet. wired first reported The Biden administration was working on the provisions, which are the result of months of negotiations with US allies and industry partners.
In response to the anticipated measures, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning last week accused the United States of “overextending the concept of national security” and using export controls to suppress China. “Such measures seriously violate the laws of market economy and the principles of fair competition, disrupting the stability of the international economic and trade system and global industrial and supply chains,” Mao said at a regular event. press conference,
One of the most significant changes introduced is the update to the Foreign Direct Products Rule (FDP), a relatively vague trade regulation that covers goods made in other countries with American technology, software or components. Previously, only foreign-made chip manufacturing tools and equipment containing more than 25 percent U.S. components were subject to the FDP. That limitation is now being eliminated, meaning that if any American technology was used to make lithography equipment in the Netherlands or memory components in South Korea, it would be subject to US export controls.