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US-China tech war
TechTech War

Tech war: China’s embattled semiconductor sector sees first signs of relief from US sanctions

  • Alan Estevez, head of BIS, said at an event in Washington on Tuesday that the US was ‘seeing better behaviour’ from the Chinese companies
  • The Post previously reported that a BIS official in Beijing planned to visit Wuhan, where three of the listed entities – including YMTC – are based

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US sanctions will make China’s goal of chip self-reliance much more challenging, say analysts. Photo: Shutterstock
Che Panin BeijingandAnn Caoin Shanghai

China’s embattled semiconductor industry is seeing some signs of relief from US export restrictions, a development that may temper further escalation of the tech war between the world’s two largest economies, even as Washington maintains its overall intent to curb Beijing’s chip ambitions.

The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has refrained from adding 128 Chinese entities to a trade sanction list, including any of the latest batch of 31 added to a watch list on October 7. The entities were given 60 days to prove they were not supplying products to the Chinese military.

The situation has provided some breathing room for Chinese chips firms such as Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC), the country’s top NAND flash memory maker.

Alan Estevez, Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, declined to provide specific information on the 31 Chinese entities at an event in Washington on Tuesday, but he did say the US was “seeing better behaviour”.

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The comments partly confirm earlier South China Morning Post reports that found many Chinese companies on the Unverified List, including a subsidiary of chip tool maker Naura Technology Group, have been conducting end-use checks in cooperation with US government officials via China’s Ministry of Commerce.
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