China’s limits on chip metals self-defeating, US national security adviser says
- China has said that gallium and germanium, along with their chemical compounds, will be subject to export controls meant to protect national security from August 1
- ‘I think it’s a self-defeating move because I believe that will only reinforce the determination of many other countries in the world to de-risk,’ Jake Sullivan said
China will only harm itself with planned restrictions on the export of two metals used in the semiconductor, telecommunications and electric-vehicle industries, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday.
“I think it’s a self-defeating move because I believe that will only reinforce the determination of many other countries in the world to de-risk,” Sullivan said in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.
Those countries will be spurred “to find ways to reduce dependencies and increase the resilience of their own supply chains, including for the kinds of minerals that are at issue in this particular decision,” he said.
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China has said that gallium and germanium, along with their chemical compounds, will be subject to export controls meant to protect Chinese national security starting from August 1. It’s the latest episode in a growing tit-for-tat trade war over dominance in technology between China on one side and the US and Europe on the other.
China’s export curbs follow US-led efforts to restrict exports of advanced chip-making technology to China and the Biden administration is said to be planning to block sales of some chips used to run artificial-intelligence programmes. China is the dominant global producer of gallium and germanium.
“We’re not looking to end all trade with China,” he said. “What we’re looking to do is have a small yard of restrictions on technology with national security implications and a high fence around that yard.”
“That’s what we’re going to continue to do and China of course will have to make its own decisions,” Sullivan said.
John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, rebutted criticism by Republican lawmakers that the administration’s recent engagement with China signals weakness.
“Diplomacy is not weakness, it’s strength,” Kirby said on Fox News Sunday. “And that’s what we’re pursuing right now.”
