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The Trump administration has intensified export controls targeting Huawei and its suppliers in the global semiconductor industry, adding to tensions between Washington and Beijing that have intensified during the pandemic.
In a statement on Friday, the commerce department said Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications equipment company, considered a risk to US national security. The US, and HiSilicon, a subsidiary, had continued to use US technology in its semiconductor design despite being subject to export controls since May 2019.
He charged that Huawei was “ordering its production at foundries abroad using American equipment,” undermining US national security and foreign policy goals. USA
“This is not how a responsible global corporate citizen behaves,” said Wilbur Ross, the US secretary of commerce.
The US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross described the activities of the telecommunications equipment maker as “malignant” and contrary to US national security. USA © Bloomberg
“We must amend our rules exploited by Huawei and HiSilicon and prevent American technologies from allowing malicious activities contrary to the interests of national security and foreign policy of the United States,” said Ross.
The commerce department said the restrictions would affect semiconductor designs and chipsets, including those produced at foreign plants using “American equipment.”
The Trump administration’s action occurs when the President and US officials. USA They have taken a more conflicting stance toward China, blaming Beijing for hiding information about the spread of the coronavirus worldwide.
Donald Trump this week threatened to “cut off the entire relationship” with China amid the pandemic, including a possible move to unravel the trade truce reached in January this year.
The Trump administration has already moved to prevent a federal pension fund from investing in certain Chinese stocks, and the further tightening of Huawei-related export controls is the latest evidence of geopolitical tensions spreading to the economic realm.
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Boosting American semiconductor production and preventing Chinese companies from accessing and using chip technology, and the government has become a high priority for the Trump administration in its rivalry with Beijing.
On Thursday, it backed a move by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world’s largest contract chip maker, to build a $ 12 billion factory in the US state of Arizona.
TSMC said the manufacturing plant, or fab, would create more than 1,600 jobs and produce 20,000 wafers, a thin slice of silicon used to make products like integrated circuits, per month. The Trump administration had become increasingly concerned with TSMC’s role as a major chip provider for Huawei, which aims to choke on new export controls.
As tensions between the United States and China expanded during the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, the commerce department in April had already moved to tighten export controls on the chip industry by tightening restrictions on sales of technology to civilian companies that could be used to support the military.
But the last step aimed directly at Huawei and its U.S. suppliers marks a new escalation.
Although EE. USA It had previously slapped the Chinese company on its so-called “entity list” in May 2019, during a collapse in trade relations between Washington and Beijing, the commerce department allowed sales to continue issuing exemptions to US suppliers for certain transactions. with Huawei.
Flexibility was met with relief among US chipmakers. USA And American corporations in general, but it was criticized by China’s hawks in Washington who considered it excessively lenient.
