An influential Chinese official warned Wednesday that the export controls China imposed on key components for computer chip manufacturing are “just the beginning,” of China’s response to the West’s attempts to use their control over key semiconductor technologies to limit the technological advancement of the Asian nation.
China had announced earlier in the week that beginning next month, it will require that exporters acquire special licenses to export the rare earth metals gallium and germanium, which are vital to the manufacture of computer chips.
In an interview with the newspaper the China Daily, former Vice Commerce Minister Wei Jianguo said that should Washington impose even more stringent technology restrictions on Beijing, the Chinese government will seek to respond with escalation in imposing countermeasures. He added that the government had only made the decision to place restrictions on the export of gallium and germanium after a period of thoughtful consideration.
The official made the comments after a report in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, which said the US plans to place restrictions on China’s access to cloud computing services, to close a loophole Chinese artificial intelligence companies had been exploiting to bypass the export restrictions on advanced computer chips used in artificial intelligence. The cloud services were allowing the firms to utilize advanced computer chips over the internet which were owned by the cloud services companies, giving them access to the chip’s capabilities to advance their research, without actually having to buy them or deal with the export restrictions.
The dispute between Washington and Beijing over advanced semiconductor technologies and Beijing’s access to other technological devices has been going on for several months.
In May, Reuters had broken the story that US officials were debating tightening the restrictions on the flow of artificial intelligence chips to Chinese research companies by limiting the amount of computing power which chips shipped to Beijing were allowed to have. The move expanded on export restrictions which Washington had imposed last October which effectively completely prevented China from acquiring specific semiconductor chips made with US equipment.
In May China retaliated by banning memory chips produced by the largest US producer of memory chips, Micron.
This week, as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen prepares to visit Beijing for economic talks, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “stable and smooth functioning of regional and industrial supply chains.”
