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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leading Chinese chipmaker SMIC may have violated U.S. export rules by producing chips to power Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro phone, a senior U.S. Commerce Department official told a meeting in Congress on Thursday.
At the meeting, participants raised questions about SMIC illegally obtaining U.S. equipment to produce chips.
Asked whether SMIC might have violated U.S. export rules to produce chips, Alan Estevez, who oversees export policy, said: “potentially yes. We will have to evaluate the situation.”
“I can’t speak to ongoing investigations. But we certainly have those concerns,” added Alan Estevez.
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Huawei was added to the US trade blacklist in 2019 by Donald Trump’s administration due to alleged sanctions violations.
SMIC was added to the same list in 2020 for alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. Both companies have previously denied wrongdoing.
President Joe Biden’s administration announced new restrictions on shipments of chipmaking equipment to Chinese factories in 2022, but major SMIC facilities had access to them before the new regulations, according to Alan Estevez.
Washington is also urging its allies to do like the United States by stopping deliveries to China of components needed for chip manufacturing.
“This also concerns maintenance agreements that keep old equipment running,” added Alan Estevez.
(Reporting Alexandra Alper, Karen Freifeld; French version Lina Golovnya, editing by Kate Entringer)
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