Workers at a semiconductor factory in Huaian, China on June 16, 2020 (AFP/Archives/STR)
Washington on Friday announced updates to its export control rules, a move meant to further complicate China’s manufacturing and buying of semiconductors.
“These updates will limit the People’s Republic of China’s ability to both purchase and manufacture certain high-end chips used in military applications,” the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said. Department of Commerce.
“Our actions will protect the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States while sending a clear message that American technology leadership is about values as well as innovation,” said the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for exports, Thea Rozman Kendler, quoted in a statement.
The move comes days after the Pentagon blacklisted 13 Chinese companies for their alleged links to the military. World leader in drones, DJI is the best known of the Chinese companies targeted.
Asked, a spokeswoman for Chinese diplomacy, Mao Ning, castigated restrictions on Saturday aimed, according to her, at “maintaining technological hegemony” American.
The manufacture and export of semiconductors are the subject of a fierce battle between the two economic powers for technological dominance.
– Curbing China –
Washington regularly accuses Beijing of industrial espionage and threats to national security.
This conflict has taken on a new dimension since the shortage of semiconductors linked to the Covid-19 crisis.
US President Joe Biden thus succeeded in getting Congress to adopt, at the end of July, a law releasing 52 billion dollars in subsidies to revive the production of semiconductors in the United States, and tens of billions more for research and development. development.
Export controls updated on Friday “limit China’s ability to obtain advanced computer chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and manufacture advanced semiconductors,” according to the BIS.
These components “are used by the People’s Republic of China to produce advanced military systems, including weapons of mass destruction; to improve the speed and accuracy of its military decision-making, planning and logistics, as well as its autonomous military systems; and commit human rights violations,” it said.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told a Senate committee in June that the Biden administration was focused on protecting U.S. business interests against China’s plans to dominate important industries such as semiconductors.
© 2022 AFP
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