US blacklisting of China’s supercomputing giants ‘will only accelerate self-reliance drive’

China will need to step up development of more supercomputers to handle growing requirements of industries, tech authorities say

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An employee walks next to a row of high-performance computing systems installed at the National Supercomputer Centre in Jinan, capital of the eastern coastal province of Shandong. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 6:00am, 28 Jun 2019Updated: 6:15am, 28 Jun 2019

The Trump administration’s move to add China’s supercomputing companies to its trade blacklist will only accelerate the domestic industry’s efforts to become more self-reliant, said Chinese experts who gathered for a conference in the country’s hi-tech heartland of Shenzhen.

Last week, the US Commerce Department added Sugon, the Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology, Higon, Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit and Chengdu Haiguang Microelectronics Technology to the so-called Entity List over concerns about the military applications of the supercomputers these firms were developing.

“The Entity List will drive China to develop its own technology and be self-reliant on supercomputers,” said Feng Shengzhong, director of the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen, in a group interview on Thursday at the 2019 World Conference on Intelligent Computers held in the southern Chinese coastal city bordering Hong Kong.

That list, which is maintained by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under the Commerce Department, identifies organisations and individuals believed to be involved, or pose a significant risk of becoming involved, in activities contrary to America’s national security or foreign policy interests. Those on the list are effectively barred from buying hardware, software and services from American hi-tech suppliers.

“In the long run, this [US trade ban] will benefit China’s supercomputer development,” Feng said.

The latest US action against those Chinese supercomputer firms has expanded the trade and tech war between the world’s two largest economies into another critical hi-tech sector.

Supercomputers, which have become an emblem of technological might, are traditionally used for complicated, computer-intensive tasks like mapping the human genome, weather forecasting and nuclear blast simulation. These are now widely adopted in commercial research, from massive data-crunching and energy exploration to creating video games and artificial intelligence, which is a field in which China has become a close rival to the US.

The addition of the five Chinese supercomputer firms – along with their numerous aliases – also increased the number of entries under mainland China in the Entity List, which is subject to ongoing review and revision by the BIS. There were 143 mainland China entries at the end of May, after telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies and 68 of its non-US affiliates were added by the US government.