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summary:If China opens up resolutely and proactively, others will be able to come in resolutely and eagerly.

A photo taken on February 10, 1992 was frozen in history - in the chip analysis room of Shanghai Belling in Caohejing Development Zone, the great leader Deng Xiaoping used a high-power microscope to observe the microscopic world of a 3-micron integrated circuit chip, which was like a high-rise building, and exclaimed that "chips should be smaller and smaller, and technology should be higher and higher."

Image provided by Shanghai Belling

The high-power microscope used by Comrade Deng Xiaoping to observe integrated circuit chips (Photo by Zhang Chi)

32 years later, still in Caohejing Development Zone, in Belling Building, the company proudly took out a domestically produced high-performance chip "BL108X SAR ADC". This chip is used in the development and application of my country's independent large-scale turbine generator and transformer protection device. The chip manufacturing process is nanometer-level, and the process is at least 50 times more advanced than that of 32 years ago.

Belling's "BL108X SAR ADC" domestic high-performance chip (Photo by Zhang Chi)

It all started in 1988. That year, Shanghai Belling became the first Sino-foreign joint venture in my country's integrated circuit industry. If China firmly and proactively opens up, others will firmly and eagerly come in.

In the early 1980s, shortly after my country opened its doors to the world, it suddenly faced the problem of backward communications. Foreign countries had used computer program-controlled telephone exchange systems 20 years ago, while 60% of my country's telephone exchange systems were still step-by-step systems invented in 1870. In July 1983, my country's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications signed a contract with the Belgian Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company to jointly establish Shanghai Bell Telephone Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd., with Belgium transferring three technologies, namely program-controlled exchange, digital communication and large-scale integrated circuits, to Shanghai Bell. China opened its domestic market, thereby building a community with a shared future.

This "bundled" introduction is no longer just a simple "taking" of the whole machine, but bringing in large-scale integrated circuit technology. For Belgium, the vast Chinese market is the biggest motivation for its firm determination. In September 1988, Shanghai Bell and Shanghai Instrument Bureau jointly established Shanghai Belling Microelectronics Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Belling took out part of its production capacity and accepted Shanghai Bell's sample processing to produce S1240 program-controlled telephone exchanges with supporting special integrated circuits.

Guo Yiwu, Secretary General of Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Association, has worked in Shanghai Belling for about 15 years and was once the Party Secretary and Deputy General Manager. Every year when he teaches the first lesson to Belling's new employees, he will tell the story of Comrade Xiaoping's visit to Belling in 1992. At that time, Comrade Xiaoping was in Belling's fully enclosed silicon wafer manufacturing workshop, looking at a large beam ion implanter imported from the United States, and for the first time asked whether the imported equipment was "capitalist" or "socialist", and then said meaningfully: "It used to be named 'capitalist' because it was produced in capitalist countries. Now it is named 'socialist' because it serves socialism."

It can be seen that by opening up to the outside world and introducing advanced foreign technology, equipment and funds, as long as they are used by us, "capital" can be transformed into "socialism".

The key is that the cutting-edge technology used by us overseas can only continue to iterate and remain cutting-edge under the nourishment of the Chinese market. This is a mutually beneficial relationship. In 1991, in just 9 months, Belling's karaoke reverberator integrated circuit blocks sold 12 million yuan; in 1992, Belling, with 300 employees, ranked first in the country in per capita monthly sales; in the five years since its establishment, Shanghai Belling has achieved continuous advancement from 3 microns to 2.4 microns and then to 1.2 microns integrated circuit equipment and technology; in 1995, the Belling 1240 series digital programmable switching integrated circuit project, which has been domestically produced, won the third prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award; in August 1998, Belling became the first listed company in the domestic integrated circuit industry and was renamed Shanghai Belling Co., Ltd.

In 2008, Shanghai Belling passed the certification of "IC Design Enterprise". From then on, it gradually transformed from manufacturing to IC design enterprise, providing analog and mixed-analog ICs and system solutions for customers in automotive electronics, industrial control, photovoltaics, energy storage, energy efficiency monitoring, power equipment, optical communications, home appliances, high-end and portable medical equipment markets and mobile phone camera modules, focusing on three major product areas: power management, signal chain products and power devices. Today, Shanghai Belling is one of the leading suppliers of IC products in China.

A corner of Shanghai Belling chip testing (Photo by Zhang Chi)

By introducing, digesting and absorbing technologies from overseas and ultimately firmly grasping the core independent and controllable technologies in our own hands, the "pole vault" achieved by countless domestic integrated circuit companies is all thanks to openness.

Guo Yiwu firmly believes that openness is the right choice. It is precisely because of openness that China has introduced overseas technology and talents such as Chinese and international students. For example, Dr. Yin Zhiyao returned to China at the age of 60 to establish SMIC, which is now one of the first listed companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. Zhang Yongxi, who once worked at Belling, went to the United States to study for a doctorate. In 2017, he resigned from Texas Instruments and focused on the wide bandgap semiconductor track. He founded Zhanxin Electronics in Lingang, Shanghai. According to incomplete statistics, more than 30% of my country's listed integrated circuit companies were founded by returnees.

Dr. Zhiyao Yin, AMEC

Dr. Zhang Yongxi, founder of Zhanxin Electronics

The "2024 Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Development Research Report" recently compiled by the Shanghai Economic and Information Technology Commission and the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Association shows that Shanghai is currently the absolute highland of integrated circuits in the country, with an industry share of 22.4% of the country. In 2023, the global integrated circuit industry was sluggish, with the market size falling by 8.2%, but Shanghai's integrated circuits were particularly resilient during the same period, growing by 6.4%, and even achieved double-digit growth in the first half of this year.