US-China tech war: Washington seeking narrow curbs on chokepoint technologies, commerce chief Gina Raimondo says
- Washington’s tech curbs on China are not meant to hurt US firms by making the restrictions too broad, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo says
- US and its allies have stepped up curbs on China’s access to advanced chips and related equipment over concerns technology could be used by the Chinese military
Washington is seeking “narrow” curbs on sales of advanced technology to China, with a focus on “chokepoints” that the Chinese military could use, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday.
Certain technology could be used by the Chinese military against the US, Raimondo told a forum hosted by the American Enterprise Institute public policy think tank on the first anniversary of the US government’s Chips and Science Act.
Other exports, she said, qualify as “commodity” technology and could still be sold.
Let’s take it back to what we’re trying to do, which is national security
“Let’s take it back to what we’re trying to do, which is national security,” Raimondo said during the forum, which was part of the think tank’s “A New China Playbook” series of events focused on China-US relations.
“You don’t want the cutline to be so broad that you deny American companies revenue and China can get the products elsewhere, or China gets products from other countries, so what we’re trying to do is be narrowly defined [and] work with our allies on these chokepoint technologies.”
Over the past year, the US and its allies have stepped up restrictions on China’s access to advanced chips and related equipment, especially from major world supply chain players Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
China’s imports of integrated circuits fell by 18.5 per cent in the first half of 2023 from a year earlier by volume, Chinese customs data showed, steeper than a mild downshift in overall inbound shipments of goods over the same period.