China holds emergency talks with chip firms after U.S. curbs -Bloomberg News
2022.10.20 03:00
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration picture taken February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo
(Reuters) – China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology convened a series of emergency meetings over the past week with leading semiconductor companies, seeking to assess the damage from the U.S. chip restrictions, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The ministry summoned executives from firms including Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) and supercomputer specialist Dawning Information Industry Co to attend closed-door meetings, the report said.
This month the Biden administration passed a sweeping set of export controls aimed at slowing Beijing’s technological and military advances, including sales restrictions on certain advanced chips and chip equipment tools.
Experts have said the new rules will have a broad impact, slowing China’s efforts to develop its own chip industry and advance commercial and state research involving military weapons, artificial intelligence, data centres and many other areas that are powered by supercomputers and high-end chips.
According to the Bloomberg report, many of the participants at the meetings argued that the U.S. curbs spell doom for their industry, as well as China’s ambitions to untether its economy from American technology.
YMTC, Dawning and the industry ministry did not immediately reply to Reuters’ requests for comment.
On Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for his country to “win the battle” in core technologies in his full work report as he kicked off the once-every-five-years Communist Party Congress.
Experts have said the work report could signal an overhaul in Beijing’s approach to advancing its tech industry, with more state-led spending and intervention to counter U.S. pressures.
