French think tank calls for united front with US to control semiconductor technology transfers to Chinese military
- The think tank’s report comes at a time when the EU is being forced to readjust its strategic position and look to the Asia Pacific for its future development
- Report’s author says it is still too early to predict whether the US grip on semiconductor tech transfer to China will be loosened under Joe Biden
The European Union should create a united front with the US to tighten control of the transfer of semiconductor technologies to China that could be used to advance weapons developed by the Chinese military, according to the recommendation from a French think tank.
“The military end-use of semiconductor technology is a serious issue from the perspective of peace in East Asia,” Institut Montaigne, a Paris-based public policy think tank, said in the report issued on Thursday.
“There should be a shared recognition among allied countries that maintaining a technology gap with China is in the interest of international security,” said the report, which was written by Mathieu Duchâtel, director of the Asia programme at Institut Montaigne.
The policy recommendations are emblematic of shared concerns among Western countries that semiconductor technologies could be harnessed to advance weapon systems as a more powerful China grows increasingly assertive in territorial disputes with neighbours.
Last month, the US Commerce Department added about 60 Chinese companies, including chip maker SMIC and China’s top drone maker DJI, to a blacklist of firms with alleged ties to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The Paris-based think tank’s recommendations come at a time when the EU is being forced to readjust its strategic position and look to the Asia Pacific for its future development, especially after US standing in the region has taken a hit over President Donald Trump’s poor handling of the Covid-19 crisis and now a new impeachment trial for inciting riots at the US capitol.