Chip Race: How US Desperately Tries to Hinder Chinese Semiconductor Industry

New measures to be introduced in the coming days are to tighten the rules by dealing with loopholes which allow the Chinese to get chips from third parties. Those very chips prohibited to export to China by the earlier announced US restrictions could be easily purchased in the Huaqiangbei electronics area in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, a news agency reported earlier in June. 6 August, 08:10 GMT. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has previously accused the US of "Unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies," calling for Washington to stop abusing export controls. On the one hand, it is illegal to sell American chips to China, on the other hand, it is extremely difficult if not impossible for the US to track those shipments, the news agency said, citing analysts, emphasizing that the Chinese presently have completely legal, yet remote, access to the chips which are distributed by foreign subsidiaries. 6 October, 09:30 GMT. In October 2022, the Biden administration imposed a set of export rules, which banned supplies of semiconductor chips made with US equipment, significantly narrowing the range of available semiconductor-dependent products on the global market. A multinational news agency claimed that the new rules would significantly hinder Chinese technological development, citing an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who noted that the new restrictions bore strong resemblance to Cold War-era regulations. Thus, the market will soon have to apply the new restrictions; however, it remains unclear how Washington will deal with another loophole which allows the Chinese to purchase everything using cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, the news agency stressed.