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‘Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish’: US ‘Embargo’ Driving China to Pioneer Own Semiconductor Industry

Microchip implant (File)Microchip implant (File) - Sputnik International, 1920, 09.01.2023InternationalIndiaAfricaAfter Washington declared itself to be in “great power competition” with Russia and China in 2018, it launched a massive effort to “decouple” the US and Chinese economies. Americans were blocked from buying from and doing business with numerous Chinese tech companies in an effort to cut off China’s access to western technology.US efforts to strangle Chinese industries dependent on advanced semiconductor computer chips are having an effect for the moment, but they are only encouraging Beijing to push ahead in developing its own domestic chipmaking capabilities, experts have said.Until recently, China was the world’s largest buyer of semiconductor chips, consuming a majority of South Korea’s annual chip exports and partnering with Taiwanese firms to obtain advanced chips. However, in October, the US banned the selling of certain advanced chips to Chinese firms, sending the industry into chaos as numerous Taiwanese, Japanese, and South Korean firms with foundries or lucrative deals in China rushed to obtain last-minute sanctions waivers.“They can make life difficult for three or four years,” a venture investor in China said anonymously in US media. “But it’s penny-wise and pound-foolish. They will lose the market in China.”Another expert said that Beijing was “really concerned about this chip embargo,” warning that “their long-run response is that they will nurture their own chip industry.”Huawei, a leading global techmaker headquartered in Shenzhen, has been cultivating its own efforts to find new sources for the advanced microchips that helped it become the world’s largest maker of smartphones, but also made it one of the first targets of US sanctions.A Chinese woman adjusts the Chinese national flag near U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting that's part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Thursday, July 10, 2014 - Sputnik International, 1920, 16.12.2022WorldUS Export Restrictions May Force China to ‘Indigenize’ Microchip Value Chain – Expert16 December 2022, 03:33 GMTReports have spread in China and on social media in recent days, fueled by alleged insider reports, that Huawei was close to being able to mass-produce 12-nanometer and 14-nanometer chips thanks to “three years of continuous effort.” Until now, Chinese firms have had to buy them from partners like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which produces chips as small as 4 nanometers.

Late last year, the company filed a patent application for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, which is used to make the world’s most advanced computer chips, according to Chinese media reports. It had previously purchased the chips from the Dutch firm ASML, the world’s sole supplier of EUV chips.

That is a massive gain for China’s chip industry, which can produce larger microchips at scale but has struggled to match the Taiwanese and South Korean chip industries, which can produce smaller chips than any Chinese firm.Beijing has pumped billions into supporting the industry for several years, most recently announcing a $143 billion investment program that would include helping domestic chip foundries shoulder the burden of buying expensive equipment, as well as tax breaks for firms investing in the assembly, packaging, and R&D of chips.

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