As the technological competition between the United States and China escalates, the Biden administration will introduce stricter restrictions on chips from China. Among them, semiconductor manufacturers that receive financial support from the US federal government will be restricted from doing business in China.
U.S. Department of Commerce: Chipmakers must not expand business in China
The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a press release on Tuesday announcing the latest restrictions on China's chip industry. These include that manufacturers beneficiary of federal funds cannot expand advanced production capacity in the "concern countries" (China and Russia) stipulated by the law. These companies are required to invest no more than $100,000 when it comes to 28nm and more sophisticated logic chip production capacity, or Expand the relevant production capacity by more than 5%; nor can you expand the production capacity of traditional chips by more than 10%.
In addition, manufacturers receiving federal funding will also be prohibited from conducting joint research or licensing technology with relevant foreign entities. The list of these foreign entities will be expanded to the entity list of the Ministry of Commerce, the list of Chinese military enterprises of the Ministry of Finance, and the Federal Communications Commission's list of equipment and service providers that pose national security risks, covering Huawei, SenseTime and Yangtze River Storage. and other Chinese chip manufacturers.
The U.S. Department of Commerce stated that if a manufacturer receiving federal funds violates the above regulations, the U.S. government has the right to withdraw all federal funds.
"The innovation and technology funded by the Chips and Science Act is how we plan to expand the technological and national security advantages of the United States and our allies. These guardrails will help ensure we stay ahead of our adversaries for decades to come." U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement on the 21st. "This bill is fundamentally a national security initiative. These guardrails will help ensure that malicious actors do not have access to cutting-edge technology that can be used against the United States and our allies."
She also said the United States will continue to work with allies and partners to advance the agenda.
Ye Yaoyuan, a chair professor of international studies at the University of St. Thomas in the United States, told this station that the United States' move is an attempt to decouple from China by cutting off the chip supply chain, and further restrict China's ability to manufacture high-precision chips.
Ye Yaoyuan said: "(The United States) just wants these chip manufacturers to know that if you want to do my business today, you cannot do its (China) business."
Expert: New rules will block China from hoarding Western chips
Bloomberg pointed out that these "guardrails" show Washington's efforts to thwart Beijing's ambitions, while also ensuring the security of supply that underpins revolutionary technologies, including artificial intelligence, supercomputers and components of everyday electronics. The scope of the above-mentioned restrictions covers industry leaders doing business in China, such as TSMC, Samsung Electronics and Intel Corp. As for TSMC, the new U.S. restrictions will affect its upgrade or expansion of its factory in Nanjing, which mainly produces 28nm and 16nm chips.
Timothy Heath, an expert on China issues at the American think tank RAND Corporation (RAND), pointed out in a written reply to our interview that the impact of these restrictive measures may not be limited to the manufacturers themselves.
He said: "These restrictions will not have a significant impact on China's semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, because the difficulty is mainly due to China's own inability to build the right industry and technology. These restrictions will mainly affect China's ability to circumvent its own limitations by hoarding semiconductors produced in the West. ability."
Ye Yaoyuan also believes that since chip manufacturers' business in China is mostly traditional chip manufacturing, although the US restrictions will affect the production capacity of 28nm and more advanced process chips in the short term, in the long run, these companies will reduce their investment in China and make more investment in China. Technology transfer, China's negative impact will be more far-reaching.
In the past few years, the United States has effectively restricted Chinese technology companies from obtaining American technology through the mechanism of establishing an entity list, and has repeatedly tightened restrictions on China by implementing export bans and prohibiting domestic technicians from working in the Chinese chip industry.
At the same time, China is also working to break through the technological barriers of the United States. The British "Financial Times" previously disclosed that China is increasing support for domestic manufacturers such as SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor and Huawei, including easing subsidy conditions to give these companies more control over state-backed research projects. funds. In addition, the Chinese government recently formed the Central Science and Technology Commission and reorganized the Ministry of Science and Technology in an attempt to establish closer cooperation with chip manufacturers and compete with US chip restrictions.