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Tech war: US-Japan-Netherlands alliance triggers debate over scale of its possible impact on China’s semiconductor industry
- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said the US-led export control pact threatens the stability of the global semiconductor supply chain
- Before export controls come into effect, lithography machine supplier ASML said its details must first be drawn up and implemented into legislation
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An agreement between the United States, Japan and the Netherlands to restrict exports of “some” advanced chip-making equipment to China has triggered debate over the scale of damage that this could inflict on Beijing’s semiconductor self-sufficiency drive, with billions of dollars of investments at stake.
That deal was reached in talks that concluded in Washington on Friday, creating a powerful alliance that will undercut Beijing’s ambitions to build its own domestic chip capabilities, according to a Bloomberg report, which cited people familiar with the negotiations.
Details of that pact, however, remain unknown. There is no plan for a public announcement of the restrictions, and actual implementation could take months as Tokyo and Amsterdam finalise legal arrangements, according to the report.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday at a briefing that the US-led agreement is not only harmful to all concerned parties, but threatens the stability of the global semiconductor supply chain.
A Naura Technology Group executive, who declined to be named, said the new alliance presents a significant escalation from unilateral US export controls, especially if any of the 28-nanometre lithography process equipment in the market were included in the ban. Naura is China’s top semiconductor manufacturing equipment maker.
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