Chinese companies are buying chip production equipment in the United States, despite a number of new export restrictions.
Source: this was stated in the US Congress report on Tuesday, Reuters
Details: A 741-page annual report released by the bipartisan House Committee on China.
Export restrictions were introduced by the Biden administration back in October 2022. They aim to prevent Chinese chipmakers from obtaining tooling from the US to make them if they are to be used for advanced chips.
Because the Commerce Department uses a 14-nanometer limit, “importers can often buy equipment if they claim it is used on an old production line. The limited capacity makes it difficult to verify used equipment.
This discovery came as the United States was trying to figure out like Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei managed to manufacture an advanced 7nm chip to power its Mate 60 Pro smartphone at leading Chinese chipmaker SMIC, despite export restrictions.
Huawei and SMIC were also added to the trade restrictions list in 2019 and 2020, which theoretically bars US suppliers from supplying certain technologies to companies.
The United States managed to close China’s key loophole to advanced chip-making tools by convincing allies Japan and the Netherlands, which have equally powerful chip-making equipment industries, to announce their own restrictions on exports of the desired technology.
But China has been stockpiling equipment, taking advantage of the gap between the United States’ restrictions in October 2022 and similar moves by Japan and the Netherlands in July and September 2023, respectively, the report said.
According to the document, from January to August 2023, China imported $3.2 billion (23.5 billion yuan) worth of semiconductor manufacturing equipment from the Netherlands, up 96.1% from the same period in 2022. 7 billion dollars (12 billion yuan). In the first eight months of 2023, China’s imports of semiconductor equipment from all countries totaled US$13.8 billion (RMB 100 billion).
The report makes no specific recommendations for addressing gaps in U.S. regulations, but it calls on Congress to require an annual assessment of the effectiveness of chip export controls.
2023-11-15 03:55:56
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