China must face its weakness in semiconductors squarely, says head of state-backed fund
China’s dependence on US chip technology was laid bare in April when the US government slapped an export ban on ZTE, crippling the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker
China must invest heavily to develop its own advanced chips to close the gap with the United States, after the forced shutdown of ZTE Corp earlier this year exposed the country's weakness in a core technology, according to the head of the nation's state-backed semiconductor investment fund.
“Everyone is aware that the global situation is complicated, we must face the situation squarely,” Ding Wenwu, president of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the Big Fund, said in a speech at the Smart Expo conference in Chongqing on Friday. “The incident in the first half has made the average man-in-the-street understand about chips. Previously, people only knew about mobile handsets.”
Ding’s remarks followed a statement made by President Xi Jinping on Thursday in the same conference, where he broadly reiterated China’s efforts to keep pace and collaborate with information technology initiatives around the world.
“China pays serious attention to innovative development,” said Xi in the statement read at the event by vice-premier Han Zheng. “The country will speed up the development of both [its] digital industry and the digitalisation of industries. China wants to actively participate and cooperate in global digital developments.”
Those views presented at the conference reflect the urgency of China’s commitment to develop a strong domestic semiconductor supply chain, which would enable the country to become more competitive with chip industry leader the US.