My Take | US chip war will end up hurting allies as much as China
- The global chip industry was doing perfectly well until the US threw a spanner in the works by offering subsidies it doesn’t need and sanctions that will backfire to contain China’s tech rise
It’s one thing to sanction for national security, it’s another to use that as an excuse to practise protectionism. But to force your friends to join while knowing full well that it will hurt their economies is an egregious breach of basic trust.
I am, of course, talking about the United States’ semiconductor sanctions against China. But perhaps the worst of all is that most independent experts and industry insiders have already warned they are counterproductive and will likely end up hurting everyone, including the US, without achieving the desired result.
No wonder Washington is facing resistance everywhere, not only from allies, but also its own business leaders and industry insiders.
Yang Hyang-ja, a former senior Samsung executive and currently a lawmaker in South Korea, has become the latest influential figure in Asia to warn the US to back off on chip curbs.
“The US should abandon its current approach of trying to get something out of shaking and breaking the global value chain,” she told the Financial Times.
“The more the US sanctions China, the harder China will try to make rapid technological progress. China will provide more national support for the goal. Then it will pose a crisis to South Korea, given China’s abundant talent and raw materials.”
