Two senior US representatives lobbied President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday to tighten curbs on powerful computing chip exports and their tools to China.
Checking on Chip Export Compliance
In a letter to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, US Representatives Michael McCaul, and Mike Gallagher—chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party—stated that the latest developments from China’s leading chipmaker demonstrate the need for revisions to a comprehensive set of regulations that were implemented a year ago this month to plug gaps on chip export. Huawei Technologies Co (華為) released a Mate 60 Pro smartphone with semiconductors from China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際) defying US sanctions.
The letter by McCaul and Gallagher stated that the October 7 [last year] rules and SMIC’s growing capabilities show a stagnant, obscured bureaucracy that does not understand China’s industrial policy, military goals, or technology, and lacks the will to act. The lawmakers encouraged the Biden administration to update the standards and act against Huawei and SMIC immediately. They also urged the White House to cut off Chinese companies’ access to powerful artificial intelligence chips via cloud computing services and to enforce the administration’s restrictions on Chinese companies that do not allow US officials to verify chip export compliance.
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