China’s YMTC has come under US sanctions
2022.12.15 09:14
China’s YMTC has come under US sanctions
Budrigannews.com – According to the Commerce Department, the Biden administration plans to broaden its crackdown on China’s chip industry by adding 21 “major” Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip industry and memory chipmaker YMTC to a trade blacklist on Thursday.
YMTC, which has been in the sights of the U.S. government for a long time, will be added to the list due to concerns that it might divert American technology to Chinese tech giants Huawei and Hikvision, which were previously on the blacklist. Without a difficult-to-obtain license, YMTC’s suppliers will be unable to ship goods from the United States to it.
The 21 Chinese AI chip companies that have been added to the trade blacklist, including Cambricon and CETC, will face a penalty that is even harsher. The U.S. government will effectively deny them access to technology that is made anywhere in the world with equipment made in the United States.
“U.S. national security interests require that we act decisively to deny access to advanced technologies,” Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Thea Kendler stated in a statement, “as the Chinese government seeks to remove barriers between its military and civilian sectors.”
The move is a continuation of Beijing’s extensive export controls implemented in October to slow Beijing’s technological and military advancements. These controls restrict China’s access to U.S. chipmaking tools and prevent China from purchasing certain chips produced anywhere in the world using U.S. equipment.
Additionally, it occurs at a time when the U.S. Congress is getting ready to pass legislation that would prohibit the government of the United States from purchasing goods that contain semiconductors manufactured by YMTC, CXMT, China’s top chip manufacturer, or SMIC.
The only lithography company in China, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co Ltd (SMEE), is one of nine Chinese companies that the Commerce Department will also target on Thursday for allegedly seeking to support China’s military modernization. The entity list, or trade blacklist, will include a total of 35 Chinese entities.
However, Beijing will not only receive bad news from Thursday’s announcements. Due to successful site visits, the Biden administration intends to remove 26 Chinese entities from the so-called unverified list. Reuters provided details regarding Wednesday that such a move was in progress.
More China solves problems with developers
If the United States is unable to complete on-site inspections to determine if a company can be trusted to receive sensitive U.S. technology exports, inspections that in China require approval from the commerce ministry are added to the unverified list.
U.S. suppliers are compelled to conduct additional research before shipping to the targeted businesses as a result of being added to the unverified list.
Officials at the Commerce Department have attributed Beijing’s increased cooperation with site checks to a new rule that was announced in October. That rule says that Washington can add companies to the unverified list after sixty days if a government stops U.S. officials from checking their sites.
Because the United States has been unable to conduct site visits, the Commerce Department plans to remove nine Russian entities from the unverified list and add them to the entity list under that new policy on Thursday.
New penalties for YMTC were announced by top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer.
“YMTC represents a prompt danger to our public safety, so the Biden Organization expected to act quickly to keep YMTC from acquiring even an inch of a military or financial benefit,” he said in an explanation.
