‘Are your chips made locally?’ Xi Jinping prods construction vehicle maker about semiconductors amid self-sufficiency push

  • A ‘two sessions’ delegate from Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group said all the chips in its crane were made in China after the president asked
  • The exchange briefly thrust the company into the national spotlight, as semiconductors have become the focal point of a technological self-sufficiency drive

Coco Fengin Beijing
The Xuzhou XCMG Port Machinery factory seen on February 24, 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE

A Chinese construction vehicle maker briefly became a leading example of the country’s self-reliance drive in semiconductors when President Xi Jinping asked a delegate from the company whether all the chips it used were domestically produced.

In a meeting with the Jiangsu delegation group at the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Sunday, Xi interrupted the report by Shan Zenghai from the Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG) to ask, “Are the chips in your crane all made locally?”, according to an account reported by the state-run Xinhua news agency on Monday.

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