xinhua commentary: building a chip "iron curtain"? the us approach won't work
2024-09-24
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xinhua news agency, beijing, september 24 (reporter fan yu) according to reports, under the continuous pressure from the united states, the united states and japan are close to reaching an agreement to restrict the export of chip technology to china. the united states has been encircling china's semiconductor industry for some time. not only has it taken frequent actions against china, but it has also wooed countries in the semiconductor industry chain to increase export controls on china. the united states' approach is not only an abuse of export control measures, but also a serious deviation from free trade and international trade rules.
in recent years, the united states has made the chip industry a key area of competition with china. from wooing allies to jointly contain china to issuing the "chips and science act" to heavily subsidize domestic semiconductor manufacturers, from the "chip restriction order" against huawei to a number of control "patches" around the export of advanced semiconductor products and technologies to china, from chips to the equipment for producing chips, the united states has spared no effort to block the development space of china's chip industry. in the past few months, the us government has sent officials to japan and the netherlands many times to consult on how to coordinate export control rules and put pressure on these allies to follow us policies. however, today, when the division of labor in the chip industry is highly globalized, the united states' forced "decoupling" from china not only hits domestic chip manufacturers in the united states hard, but also seriously threatens the security of the global semiconductor supply chain industry chain.
in april this year, the federal reserve bank of new york, a subsidiary of the federal reserve board of the united states, issued an assessment report pointing out that export control measures against china "caused significant damage to american companies." for example, after losing chinese customers, many american companies failed to find new customers and were forced to reduce jobs. for another example, export control measures against china caused the abnormal decline in the stock prices of related american suppliers, and the market value of american companies has "evaporated" a total of us$130 billion in recent years. precisely because they foresaw the "backlash" of us policies, executives of american chip companies such as intel, qualcomm and nvidia have tried to lobby the us government not to cut off ties with china, the largest market, otherwise it would undermine the united states' efforts in technological innovation and ultimately lead to the united states losing competitive opportunities in the semiconductor field. the semiconductor industry association of the united states warned that overly broad unilateral controls would only damage the us semiconductor ecosystem and would not promote "national security."
this is a photo of intel's headquarters in santa clara, california, on august 1. intel announced that it would lay off 15% of its employees, a total of about 15,000 people. this is the largest layoff in intel's history. xinhua news agency (photo by li jianguo)in addition to involving local companies in the vortex of sino-us competition, the united states has also been putting its allies in the geopolitical gap by exerting pressure. the logic of the united states is simple. to achieve the goal of blocking the development space of china's science and technology industry, it needs the cooperation of its allies in a coordinated manner. however, the allies of the united states are well aware of the risks and costs of the "anti-china chip alliance". blindly following the united states will only bring them pain. in order to avoid becoming a victim of the us strategy to contain china, some countries are trying every means to "balance" and some companies are racking their brains to circumvent the us ban. martin joelzenpa, a senior fellow at the peterson institute for international economics, a us think tank, wrote that if the united states wants to convince and follow its allies, it needs to provide more reasonable explanations about "national security" to convince its allies that these measures are not for serving the commercial interests of american companies.
the united states has gone to great lengths to hinder china's technological progress, but it did not expect that export controls on china would have an "unexpected counter-effect" - accelerating china's technological self-reliance. huawei, which was "cut off" by the united states, "transformed upward" under the heavy hammer, which is a typical example. huawei's recently released world's first three-fold screen mobile phone has caused a strong market response. paul triolo, a scholar at the center for strategic and international studies, wrote in american affairs magazine that since the united states implemented large-scale export controls on china, china's semiconductor industry has undergone positive changes under the continuous efforts of chinese companies and the attention of the chinese government. the industrial structure has become more complex and diverse, and the investment types are more novel. it is expected that more new technological breakthroughs will appear in the next few years.
on september 10, huawei released the new mate xt series. photo by xinhua news agency reporter liang xuthe formation and development of the global chip industry chain and supply chain are the result of the combined effects of market laws and corporate choices. artificial restrictions or forced "decoupling" for political purposes violate the principles of market economy and fair competition, undermine the international economic and trade order, disrupt the stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain, and ultimately harm the interests of the world. in the long run, the united states' attempt to create a chip "iron curtain" will not stop china's development. the initiative of china's chip industry's rise and breakthrough lies in its own hands.
