Alexander Nemets: But China is again attracting the attention of the world media.
update: 16-09-2023 (14:26)
Kim’s visit to Putin has ended. Apparently, nothing (almost nothing) harmful for Ukraine will come out of this summit. Perhaps North Korea will supply the Russian Federation with a small amount of old, low-quality shells. And that’s not necessary.
For me, the most important thing is that China will not participate in this “scheme” in any way. All speculation on the topic “China will supply the Russian Federation with various weapons, using North Korea as a gasket” has burst. Nothing like that will happen.
China will not get dirty about supplying weapons and ammunition to the Putin regime, not directly, not indirectly, not through North Korea. Yes, the Russian Federation receives through various channels – through Turkey, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and even through Hong Kong – components for the manufacture of missiles and combat drones; This is not to mention the direct supply of weapons from Iran. Western sanctions against the Russian Federation are not working well yet. This is recognized by leading American media. But China’s share in these “gray supplies” is small.
But China is again attracting the attention of the world media. What happened?
On August 30, the famous Chinese electronics company Huawei began shipping the latest smartphone Mate 60 Pro to the market. In China, this mobile phone immediately became very popular; its sales can amount to many millions of units. Most importantly, the new smartphone uses the latest Kirin 9000S processor and other ultra-ultra-large-scale integrated circuits (USBIS) using 7 nanometer (7nm) technology.
More importantly, this processor and other 7nm USB ICs in the new smartphone were manufactured by China’s largest semiconductor firm, Shanghai Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC).
And so a variety of sites – American and Canadian – shouted with one voice:
“This Phone Just Destroyed US Sanctions…America Shocked!” (This mobile phone simply destroyed American sanctions… America is in shock!; or “It would be ‘slap in the face’ moment for USA over sanctions it put on Huawei in 2019” (This will be a blow in the face of America in the area of sanctions that America imposed against Huawei back in 2019;) and many others (hundreds of responses on YouTube and beyond).
Indeed, since 2019, the Trump Administration and then the Biden Administration have done everything possible, through the imposition of many dozens of sanctions, to limit the growth and “roll back” of Chinese nanoelectronics and Chinese electronics in general. The “pinnacle” of these sanctions was the sanctions package of October 7, 2022, which prohibited companies in the United States and other Western countries (primarily the Taiwanese Taiwan Semicoductor Manufacturing Corp. or TSMC, the world’s leading manufacturer of the most advanced USBICs), from supplying any serious equipment and technologies for the development and manufacture of USBIS, as well as the USBIS themselves.
At the same time, Intel, other leading American USBIS manufacturers and TSMC received an order from Washington: to reduce their activities in China as much as possible!
It must be said that the Biden Administration has achieved something here: In 2021-2022, Huawei significantly reduced the production and sales of its smartphones and other electronic products. At the same time, Shanghai SMIC, which at the end of 2019 began mass production of 14nm USBICs, was forced to abandon plans for the complete sovereignization of this technology (installing a set of completely Chinese equipment for the production of such USBICs).
Other leading Chinese electronics firms were also hit. The total volume of Chinese electronics exports began to decline.
And then all the American sanctions “burst.” This is not an exaggeration! Despite these sanctions, Huawei and SMIC created and began to produce an excellent, world-leading smartphone that can compete with products from such giants as Apple and Samsung.
It should be noted that SMIC manufactures the latest processor and other USB ICs for the Mate 60 Pro using lithography equipment from the Dutch company ASML. Such equipment is not yet produced in China.
Actually, it is not produced anywhere in the world except the Netherlands (the exception, as far as I know, is the Japanese company Cannon, but it lags far behind ASML). For many years, ASML and TSMC worked in tandem: the Taiwanese TSMC supplied its latest USBIS to the Dutch ASML, which manufactured new generation lithography equipment using them. This equipment was supplied to TSMC, Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung, and other Western USBIS manufacturers. They produced a new generation USBIS… Then this cycle (iteration) was repeated. Washington has decided to throw China out of this cycle. Yes, I miscalculated.
Here is an interesting table showing the year of development of a new level of nanotechnology:
2008
2011
2013
2014
2015
2018
2020
2022
40 nm
28/22 nm
20 nm
16/12 nm
10 nm
7 nm
5 nm
3 nm
China (represented by Shanghai SMIC) reached the global level in 2018. By the way, at the same time Apple began releasing a new iPhone with a 3nm processor.
And now it turns out that China, having learned from bitter experience, is creating “its own ASML.” I will not bore readers with additional company names and technical details. I will only say that China (the best electronics firms in Shanghai, neighboring cities of Jiangsu Province, Beijing and Shenzhen, acting together) plans to complete “full sovereignization” of lithographic equipment for the production of 28nm level USBICs by the end of 2023, and “full sovereignization” by the end of 2024 equipment for the production of USBIS at 14nm level.
The fact is that the Dutch ASML will sell 14nm and 7nm lithography equipment to China only until the end of 2023. After that, these supplies will be stopped in accordance with Washington’s requirements.
This means that China will try, at the next stage, to carry out “full sovereignization” of equipment at the 10nm, 7nm and 5nm levels and, as a result, sharply reduce the gap with Western nanoelectronics manufacturers. Will it work? With the current Chinese intellectual potential, it will certainly work out. Now it’s obvious.
In American and Canadian responses to the launch of sales of the Mate 60 Pro, Bill Gates, the former head of Microsoft, is often quoted as saying back in 2020 that an attempt at a technological blockade of China would end in failure.
Also quoted is the “ancient Chinese wisdom” (maybe ancient Roman?) “What does not kill us strengthens us.”
In short, the time has come to abandon useless sanctions against China in the technological and military sphere, and use the released forces and means to effectively fight the Putin regime. This will be better for Ukraine, for the United States and for the whole world.
Glory to Ukraine! Death to the racist occupiers! Death to the Putin regime!
Alexander Nemets
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2023-09-16 11:30:45
#Sovereignty #nanometer
